Fortuna Venatus
by Blue Lone Wolf 2574
Summary: If Garrus joined up after the first game but never met Shepard while working Citadel Security. Does he have a shot at winning Shepard's heart or are they doomed from the beginning. Let's see them play Fate's Game. FemShepXGarrus pairing, rated T 2 be safe
1. Chapter 1: Meeting You

Hey all! Blue here! I'm likely loading waaay too much work onto myself but I just had to get this one outta my system. I love '_Mass Effect_' too much not to. It'd be just too cruel on me and likely the rest of the world if I didn't. But that don't matter! I won't waste anybody's time (should anybody actually take the time to read this) and just move on. I don't own '_Mass Effect_' in any shape or form, but I'm prepared to fight whoever wants Garrus just as much as I do. Enjoy!

"Iii" = speech

"_Iii_" = radio speech

_Iii_ = thought

Chapter 1: Meeting You

Officer Garrus Vakarian, agent of the Turian Hierarchy military and sniper of almost unrivaled skill, was doing his best to keep his blood from getting into his eyes. His visor was helping him but the navy blue blood coming from a rather nasty crack on one of his brow's face plates was making it hard to see clearly. It was bad enough the Harpoon X in his grip was starting to get heavy, even though he was lying on his stomach, fully armored, with the end propped up against the ground. The wound on his head was making his vision blurry and his mind start to lose focus. If not for the fact he'd run out of medi-gel, he'd have dealt with the damn wound by now. Plus on top of being awake for almost two full days, Garrus was sure that his eyes would finally fail him, if he didn't pass out from blood loss first. At this point, he had no idea where the rest of his unit was, or even if they were still alive. He was almost sure they thought he was dead. Lying there, amidst various brush and fallen foliage, Garrus focused mostly on the scene beyond his scope.

The mercenaries he'd been watching since early morning yesterday had yet to make any moves toward him, though his team had already killed almost half their number before being driven back into the woods. And beyond any kind of plausible radio contact. Every time he tried, all he got was static and mixed conversations from the mercs channels. If that weren't enough, the right side of his face was coming close to killing him, especially since he couldn't be on his meds while in the field. Weeks had gone by since a rather nasty band of pirates had tried to take him out with a missile launcher, but that didn't mean it wasn't still sore. He'd only been allowed to bring some of his pain medication, ones his superiors were sure wouldn't affect his abilities while in the field. Now, two days later, Garrus wished to the high heavens he'd brought some of the other ones with him. And on top of that, he was tired and was almost out of food. Mandibles twitching subconsciously into the uneasy quiet that surrounded the cool mountains as he focused his attention back on the mercs caught in his crosshairs.

From what he could tell, most of them were turians and batarians, all moving in a fairly somewhat organized manner as they strutted around their compound with their annoyingly colored Blue Suns armor. Carefully counting them, Garrus was sure that roughly fifteen of their men were dead out of the almost fifty they'd been warned about. And from the way they were acting, something in the pits of his stomach told him his team wouldn't be coming to help him anytime soon. Slowly panning his gaze from one end of the exposed area to the other, something at the western side of the compound caught his attention. Zooming in on it, he soon found it was indeed movement, several Blue Suns mercs making their way into the trees and up the hill, vanishing into the brush soon after. Suspicious, Garrus quickly turned his attention to the eastern side, barely catching a glimpse of another group disappearing into the lush green flora that'd yet to yellow with the changing season. Looking back at the main area, the southern entrance as he knew it, Garrus found that a number of the men outside had vanished. The turian had no trouble seeing a few of their oddly painted helmets before the trees hid them completely. That only meant one of two things: his team had drawn some of them out for another round…

_Or they're out to find me or anyone else who might be left. Shit!_ Garrus thought angrily to himself, doing his best to rise without giving away his position to his oncoming pursuers. His body ached from the lack of movement, his joints burning before the weave in his armor somehow eased the pain away. His cobalt blue and black armor was a rather distinct contrast compared to the bright green trees and bushes he was surrounded by, but somehow Garrus felt confident. If he got far ahead enough, his chances of slipping out of their patrol area were getting higher with each step. Careful of any sticks his feet might snap loudly in half, Garrus quickly jogged down the hill from his look-out spot, using the trees to keep him from slipping and falling should he lose his footing. The last thing he needed right now were broken bones. Or plates. As he made his way down, he winced in pain to a gunshot wound he'd received only a few days before. A patrol of Blue Suns had found them just as they'd landed, managing to kill only one of his comrades and wounding three, himself included. He'd been putting medi-gel onto the wound ever since, as sparingly as possible, though the wound was like a parasite to his ever-thinning resources. If he got shot one more time and couldn't get help, it was likely he was going to die on this unnamed planet.

Holding back gasps and hisses of pain, Garrus managed to keep himself crouched should he need to start running, the assault rifle he'd pulled from its holster thankfully lighter than his sniper rifle as he went. He managed to trek over two hills before a sound to his right caught his attention, pointing his gun at the source of the noise. No sooner did he do this, bullets whizzed past him, barely scratching his shields, creating a blue light flicker around him. Either these mercs were bad aim, or they wanted him alive. Taking no chances, Garrus quickly got himself behind a rather thick tree, using his visor and his instincts to make quick kills. Bullets went by him almost in waves, some of them boring holes into the tree that was his barrier, giving him ample cover to take down at least eight of the twelve men sent to kill him. He was sure their variously colored blood was already soaking into the earth as they fell to his well-practiced aim. Garrus was about to ponder just how good his luck had gotten, until one of the other patrols appeared behind him, also barely missing several vital areas as they tried to weaken his shields with their onslaught. Cursing under his breath now, Garrus quickly gunned down a few that'd taken point before tossing grenades at both and making a break from the top of the next hill. Adrenaline was his friend now as he struggled up the hill, almost slipping on the wet leaves as he came down the other side. He could barely hear their angry yells and screams over his heavy breathing, his own heartbeat pounding in his ears as he ran.

Finding the trail that'd led to their landing site, Garrus instinctively took it, ignoring the blood leaking from not only his head but his old wound. More shots rang out, creating small explosions of dirt, leaves and other earthly debris before a few shots took down his shields, a lucky hit clipping him in the right ribcage. Only mere inches away from his two-day old one, which had been placed in his chest by a merc he'd immediately gotten between the eyes mere moments later. Almost howling in agony, Garrus stumbled, but didn't stop, turning only to return fire. He managed to kill a few more of their number before going into another flat-out run towards the shuttle he hoped was still there. If it wasn't… it wasn't something he was up to thinking right now. Following the path from memory more than anything, Garrus heard more shots go off, only this time coming from in front of him. Practically skidding to a halt, his breathing sounded off in wet and ragged gasps for air now in the sudden quiet. He didn't have to wait long for more shots to come from the path ahead of him, angry shouts sounding off almost drowned out by the exchange of fire. Mandibles twitching with indecision, Garrus honestly didn't know what to do anymore. Go forward and hope for the best? Or go back and take his chances?

The decision was made for him, when a gruff shout sounded off from behind him, making him curse at his stupidity. Dodging gunshots and biotic fields, the turian was surprised at how quickly he was able to get running again. Adrenaline was truly his friend this day. After a few more meters of running ahead of his pursuers, Garrus had to once again hide behind a tree to get a view of the battle that still continued, all involved unaware of his presence. The armor of one of the newcomers was definitely human, the N7 logo evident on their chest piece, standard issue to Systems Alliance marines. Only this human was female, her face hidden by a matching N7 helmet, leading what looked like a quarian female and a dark skinned human male. He didn't know the humans but the sight of the quarian girl made his blood run cold.

Tali. Tali'Zorah vas Neema he'd heard last when she'd messaged him at the end of her Pilgrimage for the Flotilla. She'd sent him messages now and again, but other than that, they'd rarely spoken in almost a year. Though her contact with him had spiked when he told her he'd been hurt, her concern for her 'older brother' was a heart-warming thing to behold. Now here she was, teamed with two humans for a reason that was unknown to him. But from the way the mercs were trying to flank them, they needed his help. Without even having to look, Garrus didn't waste time in diving into the brush, quickly hiding himself amidst the various bushes and young trees as he brought his sniper rifle to hand. Just as soon as he was sure no one could see him, he took aim and fired, easily puncturing a batarian's shields and busting a giant hole into the back of his helmet. As soon as he fell, his companions began to look around for the source of the shot, scattering into a less organized formation. It was all the three needed to get the upper hand, his good aim taking down any stragglers that remained. As Garrus relaxed, he felt everything about him suddenly become heavy.

Thankfully his limbs weren't too heavy for him to put his sniper rifle back in its holster, replacing it with his pistol as he tried to get up but failed. He felt so tired, like he just wanted to lie down and sleep, forget all his troubles and finally get some shut eye. If only the sound of shouts and approaching feet didn't interrupt his plans to finally get some much needed rest, the sound of crunching leaves, cracking twigs and rustling branches making him look towards his immediate left. Suddenly wary of the possibility of attack, Garrus found the energy to point his weapon at the source of the noise, his rising pulse pounding in his head. Only instead of a merc unwittingly coming towards his death, Tali appeared instead, her new purple suit an interesting sight if not for the fact that Garrus was too focused on staying alive.

"Garrus! Garrus it's me! Put that away! Please?" she pleaded suddenly as she put her own weapon away, sounding both soothing but a little scared at the gun pointed at her.

The turian lying in what he knew was his own blood, blinked at the quarian girl before her appearance seemed to register in his adrenaline filled mind. When he spoke, even he was surprised at how tired he sounded as he lowered the gun and gasped out the words that first came to mind. "T-Tali… I thought I recognized you. Nice suit by the way."

"That doesn't matter now, we need to leave." He heard her say, the young woman kneeling next to him as she looked him over. After a close examination, the quarian was immediately tearing open a pack of medi-gel, her voice suddenly filled with panic. "Keelah you're bleeding! What happened?"

"I—ah!" he gasped as she touched a tender spot, the cool gel somehow burning as it made contact with his injuries, barely hearing her soft apology as he tried to steady his voice. "It's a long story."

"Commander! Over here!" she called over her shoulder, pausing in her work briefly before turning back to him, whispering in a sisterly tone he remembered quite well. "Don't worry. We'll have you out of here in no time. Just stay awake for us."

Garrus nodded, forcing himself to relax at the sound of approaching footsteps before his brain finally brought forth another memory. "M-my team. I was on a team. I-I have to find them. They might still be alive." He managed to say, letting out a weak cough as he tried to mess with his omni-tool. "I lost radio contact with them almost two days ago."

Only the girl shook her head, her glowing white eyes looking sad in the purple abyss he knew was her face. "We haven't seen anyone else but you Garrus. I'm sorry."

"Is this him? Garrus Vakarian?" an almost rough female voice called. It was the N7 armored human from before. Almost immediately anger rose forth despite his weakened state.

"Not for much longer if I keep bleeding like this. And what on all of Palaven are you doing bringing her here? What were you thinking human?" he growled, his voice gaining strength and emotion as he spoke, his mandibles tensed against his face in his barely contained rage at the woman before him.

The human female snorted as if in amusement, her navy blue armor a stark contrast to their surroundings. Just like his own armor. "I'm was thinking you be more grateful, not pissed off. Now hold still." She said as she knelt down next to Tali, roughly turning him, likely using more force than necessary.

Garrus let out a loud yell of agony, shutting his eyes against the pain before he glared at her, his mandibles clamped against the sides of his face. "That. Hurt."

"So we noticed. Can you stand?" her tone was truly apologetic, defusing some of the anger he already felt for the human. Sighing, Garrus turned to Tali, his expression softening as he spoke. It was easy to show them just how tired he was.

"Do I have to?" he practically mewled, looking straight at the quarian. Both humans either had the manners or the sense not to laugh at how pitiful he sounded.

Tali shook her head again, her voice full of worry and regret. "We can't carry you Garrus. Why? Have you been gorging yourself on tuperi fruit again?"

"Very funny. But I can try." He growled, slowly rolling over so he could brace against the ground, already turning black with his life's precious proverbial waters. As he did, Garrus was glad no one mentioned how his limbs shook at the effort.

Tali was quick to give him aid, putting an arm under his to gently wrap around him, helping him stand upright. "Easy. Take it slow."

Garrus coughed up a laugh, his mandibles flaring in an amused smile. "Slow? Ha! You should've seen me earlier."

"Alright, alright hotshot. Just stay awake and you'll be fine in no time." The human woman stated, her own voice taking on that of sarcasm.

No sooner was she done speaking did the dark skinned male speak up from his position amidst the brush, giving them all a worried look. "Uh Shepard? We should probably get a move on. Those mercs are comin' in heavy."

"How many?" the woman he now knew was called Shepard demanded, her switch to cold professionalism a little unnerving. _Wait… where have I heard that name before?_ He thought as the male responded.

"Almost thirty, maybe more." The man stated, sounding worried as he fingered the trigger of his pistol, his body coming alive with the fire of biotic power.

"Shit!" Shepard cursed, turning her masked face toward his, her voice low and almost accusing. "The hell did you do Vakarian?"

Garrus scoffed at her. "Like I told you, you should've seen me earlier. How the Spirits do you think I got shot?" he snapped back, his voice sounding weak and tired, a lot of his anger lost to all the blood loss he'd suffered. If they wanted him to be awake, they weren't doing a very good job of it.

Growling low over the radio, Shepard shook her head at his comment. "We don't have time to deal with them now. Everybody back to the shuttle! Jacob, cover fire. Tali? Help me walk this guy to the landing site. He needs to see Dr. Chakwas."

_Chakwas?_ Yet another familiar name to Garrus's ears. Something told him he might have come across an invisible interconnection he'd never noticed before. Chakwas being a human doctor he'd met briefly on the Citadel when the old woman had come to visit his friend and contact, Dr. Michel. He'd exchanged greetings and a few word with her, but never saw her again since. For the name to be mentioned now seemed like a hell of a coincidence. He was brought out of his thoughts when he saw the dark skinned male, Jacob he now knew, pointed his assault rifle at the many possible places a merc might appear as Shepard somehow got around him to take his other arm. Just as soon as she took his arm and put it over her shoulders, Garrus bit down a hiss of pain as her body pressed against his wounds. If she muttered an apology, he couldn't hear it over the pain screaming in his head as they led him away, his longer legs doing their best to take longer strides. After what felt like an hour when he knew in his mind was moments, they came to a shuttle that was definitely not of turian make.

Gunshots were echoing in the air, Jacob shooting back, sending the occasional blue ball of energy as his body flamed with biotic energy. Suddenly Tali was the only one leading him into the shuttle as Shepard vanished only to reappear, her own form covered in the ethereal blue fire. Shouting various orders that he couldn't hear, Shepard joined Jacob in deterring their pursuers long enough for Tali to help him lie on the floor of the shuttle, the cool metal a welcome contrast to the blazing heat of his own body. Which was odd since he was starting to feel a little too cold for his own tastes, and Garrus could already feel himself start to shiver. Even worse, the need to sleep was coming back strong and he wasn't sure if he could fight it anymore.

"Tali?" he managed to say, thoroughly surprised at how weak and pitiful he sounded now that he thought about it. Almost like a wounded puppy of sorts.

The young quarian was suddenly there, her three fingered hand holding his, glowing white orbs watching him with worry-filled intensity. "Garrus? Garrus what's wrong?"

"I don't feel so great." Garrus managed to say, his body suddenly starting to shake, the hand holding hers included. "Was it always this cold?"

"Oh gods you're freezing!" she exclaimed, suddenly more fearful than he'd ever hear from her before. Since when was he the source of misery and sorrow in females? This thought floated away as Tali turned and shouted towards the open shuttle's entrance. "Commander! Commander Shepard we need to go!"

_Commander Shepard?_ Now he remembered. The first human Spectre, highly decorated Alliance marine and savior of the Citadel and its multispecies Council, all earning her a spotlight that each time she gracefully denied. Wasted efforts on pompous bureaucrats he'd always thought. They'd ignored her claims that something called the Reapers were coming to destroy all life as they knew it to be. Up until her ship the Normandy had helped blast one to many, many ancient pieces. The Council was more open-minded afterwards. Suddenly the place got darker as the two humans finally boarded the shuttle and the door shut behind them, bringing Garrus out of his wayward thoughts. Within moments the turian could feel it taking off, the gunfire that'd followed them becoming nothing more than background noise before fading away. He could feel his mandibles quivering as the unnatural cold continued to spread through him, doing his best to keep his eyes open and focused on Tali's glowing masked face.

"It'll be alright Garrus, we'll have you patched up in no time. Dr. Chakwas is the best doctor out there." She said soothingly, though the fear didn't leave what little he could see of her face.

"W-what about my team? They could still be alive… we can't just-!" he said, the thought coming back to mind, adrenaline trying to rush forth again as he attempted to sit up.

Shepard cut him off, quickly kneeling down on the floor next to him, gently pushing on his shoulder to keep him from trying to get up. As she spoke, her voice was surprisingly sincere and commanding. "We'll send a message to the Turian Hierarchy that they might have a team missing, but until then we can't take on that many mercs. Now just focus on us. Focus and stay awake. Can you do that?"

Garrus was taken aback. Of all the things to hear, he definitely didn't expect something like that. He tried to speak only to gasp and cough violently, nearly spitting up ink blue blood onto Tali's mask, the liquid already marking a trail from his mouth. If Tali gasped in horror, he didn't hear it as his vision started to get fuzzy at the edges, sound taking on an almost muffled effect as he felt himself beginning to have trouble breathing.

"Garrus?" he heard Shepard ask cautiously, as if her very voice would cause him harm.

"Ow." The turian grunted out, turning his blue eyed gaze back to the quarian still gripping his hand for dear life. For a moment, a brief few seconds, he squeezed back. "You still owe me an explanation little one."

"Live and I promise I'll tell you all about it you stupid bosh'tet!" Tali exclaimed at him, the speaker in her mask unable to hide the weak sob in her voice, the pain in her tone.

This got the turian laughing again, only for it to become a series of light coughs and low groans of pain. He felt the shuttle hit some turbulence, jostling him almost cruelly, drawing from him an angry growl of agony. Despite his altered state of mind, Garrus was sure he was shouting slurred turian curses at the pilot only to result in another coughing fit. Tali was gripping his hand so hard he was sure her own hand had become a vice. Eventually, finally, Garrus felt himself beginning to lose consciousness, despite Shepard's concerned voice and Tali's pleading cries fading away as the world went black.

White. Blinding, clinically clean, blaringly pure white light met Garrus's tired eyes as he dared crack them open only to find that someone had placed him right underneath a disturbingly bright artificial light fixture. At first he thought he was in a turian med bay, and it was the day after he'd gotten his face nearly blown in half. Only upon closer inspection by his intense gaze, Garrus found the light was shape different, and the ceiling's metal tiles were very much the wrong color. Honestly confused by this, Garrus attempted once again to sit up, only for him to discover it was painful to move. That and someone had taken his visor off. Another thing he noticed was that his armor was missing, leaving him feeling almost naked and vulnerable. If not for the cotton blankets he honestly thought he would have been very exposed, as well as embarrassed. As his mind began to catch up with his body, Garrus finally noticed there were hushed voices coming from… somewhere. Close enough to hear the voices, but not the words being said. Listening just a little more closely and he noticed that it was indeed three voices and all of them were female. And from the way they were whispering, it was obvious they hadn't noticed he was awake yet.

Being the stubborn turian that he was, Garrus attempted for a third time to sit up, only to fail and this time, groan aloud at the effort. The whispering voices suddenly stopped, footsteps rushing towards him, the first to appear being Tali. "Garrus! Thank the Spirits!"

"W-where-?" he managed to get out before the quarian hushed him, once again taking his hand in hers. Only this time gently and with thankful relief.

"In the med bay of the SR2-_Normandy_. We got you here just in time. If we'd delayed a moment longer…." She said, leaving the sentence hanging as if she dared not utter the words she feared the most.

A kind but old voice said from somewhere all before an equally kind faced human female appeared to his immediate right, right next to Tali. Her face was full of somewhat smooth wrinkles, her eyes a stormy grey he remembered, hair still a shade of platinum silver as she smiled at him with the same kind smile she'd treated him to when they'd first met. "It would've been a close call. But nothing I couldn't handle. Hello again Officer Vakarian. I trust Chloe is doing well?"

"Chakwas?" Garrus ground out, his mind blearily catching up with his memory in tow. Soon the information made things clear. "Y-yes, Dr. Michel is fine. Long time no see doctor."

She smiled again, this time at the two women on either side of him before pulling away a little from his view. He would've tried to see her better, but his stiff neck wouldn't allow it as he heard her speak. "I'll let you all catch up."

"How soon can he leave? Will he be okay?" Tali quickly asked, her glowing white eyes glancing between him and the doctor. Clearly this was the question that'd been on her mind from the very start.

"Not for a few days I'm afraid, though I'm sure he'll do his best to keep me from being truly honest. As for his health, all he needs is rest and medication. Our best bet is to keep him here until I'm certain he won't vomit up his own intestines." The old woman joked, earning a slight chuckle from Shepard but only an understanding nod from Tali.

Stifling her laugh, the human commander waved the doctor away. "Thanks Doc. I'll take a look at your report later."

"Of course Commander." She said calmly before vanishing from Garrus's view, forcing his attention back to the women who literally had him surrounded.

"Well Garrus, it looks like you're going to be with us for a while." She said, smiling as he examined her for the first time albeit with tired eyes. Her hair, a curious human feature, was short and brown, only coming to her chin in straight dark strands. Skin, plate and scale less, just so happened to be a shade of cream that wasn't white, suggesting she spent time in lots of sun, but not too much to change its tone. Her face, another odd thing to behold, was full of almost angular features, presenting a sort of domestic savagery to his gaze. Though it was her eyes that really caught his attention: silver-grey and shining with a flicker of emotions, from curiosity to outright, undeniable defiance.

Though it was none of these things that made him scowl at her and manage to bring some of the anger back into his flanged voice. "You've still yet to tell my little sister is on your ship and not with the Flotilla where she belongs. And if I don't like your explanation Commander, I must respectfully warn you that I'll feel obligated to take my anger out on you."

"You're right Tali! This guy's funny!" Shepard said smiling in a way that took both aliens off guard, chuckling as she continued to stare the turian down. "Well I'm sure we'll both have ample opportunities to bash each other's brains to mush, but I can't exactly do that if my opponent is bed-ridden."

"Is that a challenge Shepard?" Garrus inquired, not sure what else to say, his smug sarcasm kicking in on its own. On the inside, he was kicking himself.

She cocked an eyebrow at him. If she noticed his inner turmoil she didn't say. "Only if you're willing to take it."

"Absolutely not. No fighting until we're sure you're fully healed." Garrus turned his attention to Tali, who just so happened to be sending a playful glare at the human. The look became serious when it was turned on him, making him gulp inaudibly. "And you've yet to tell me what in all of keelah happened to your face!"

This time Shepard's reaction was pure confusion at her statement. "You mean he didn't always look like this? Damn and here I thought krogans were ugly."

"And here I thought humans were fleshy weaklings. Did your species lose its plates at some point?" he snapped, just a little tired of her banter. Just having her around made him tired.

"Alright, alright that's enough. Both of you! Commander, we should probably get back to work." Tali stared down meaningfully at him, pulling at his arm playfully. "And you bosh'tet, are staying here to get some rest. If you don't-."

It was Garrus's turn to scoff, clearly not all that threatened by the young quarian. "You'll what? Shoot me? I'm sure those Blue Suns already filled that quota thanks."

"I'll hack your visor so badly you'll wish you listened to me." She said almost tonelessly, changing her posture to a more serious stance.

Garrus blinked, taken aback and a little shocked at the threat. Since when had this girl gotten to be so bold? "You wouldn't dare!"

"Need me to prove it turian?" the question hung between them as orbs of glowing white met sapphire blue, both staring and relatively unblinking.

Seeing that she wasn't going to give up, Garrus only sighed and laid his head back a bit more, pulling his hand from hers to use both to try to wipe some of the sleep from his tired and aching face. "Fine. I give. I'll stay. And only because you're insisting."

He could literally hear both women giggle at his discomfort. "Good."

"By the way little one, were you ever able to get that putty out of your pockets?" he asked, resting his hands on his stomach, giving the girl a smug look before beaming in a triumphant turian grin when she turned her head away. A clear sign of embarrassment that made him laugh with close to no pain in his chest at all. "I'll take that as a no."

Shepard looked between them, her cream colored face twisted in a very human expression of amused confusion, the woman shrugging it off before nodding at him and silently walking away to talk to Chakwas once more. This gave Garrus the chance to look back at the quarian that was once again gripping his hand as though she feared it would vanish.

"Tali. Tali look at me." When she did, he whispered low enough for only the two of them could hear properly. "I'm going to be fine. From what I know about Chakwas, she's the best out there. Albeit her being an elderly human female."

The quarian girl sighed, some of the worry coming off her shoulders as she spoke. "I wanted to tell you where I was, what I was doing. I really did! But I've been so busy lately that I was either too tired to think about it or it would be all over before you found out." Soon enough she placed her free hand on her mask as though to hide her eyes. "Keelah save me, listen to me and my excuses!"

"What matters is that we're here, and that we're alive. That's all that counts." He said with a chuckle before groaning. This time there was pain he couldn't ignore, and the more he tried to take deeper breaths it only got worse.

Suddenly worried, Tali was almost leaning over him, her voice coming in a worried exclamation. "What's wrong?"

Garrus just shook his head, but the action only made him dizzy. "N-nothing. My chest just hurts. My meds must be wearing off. Aw damn that hurts."

"Dr. Chakwas?" Tali called, pulling away to give the elderly human room.

Almost immediately the woman was there with an already prepared syringe, her soft hands already gently turning his right arm in search of an entry point. "I'm right here. Another dose should do the trick. In the meantime, out with you! This young man needs his rest. Now out! Both of you!"

"I'll come back later Garrus!" Tali called, quickly vanishing as Dr. Chakwas took her place, giving him the same kind smile he remembered, her eyes shining with reassurance.

Garrus managed to wave at her as she left, his arm a barely movable limp chunk of meat attached to him via nerves, muscle and bone. Doing his best to steady his breathing against the pain, Garrus grunted at the slight sting of the syringe poking between plates into his rough skin down into the flesh beneath. Soon the sensation faded as the medicine coursed through his veins, quickly making its way through his body, helping him feel more relaxed. Pretty soon Garrus could feel the meds slowing his breathing for him, once again dipping his mind into a calming abyss that threatened to swallow him whole. Unable to fight it and not really up to the struggle, the beaten turian let the darkness win once more, this time fading into a more comfortable void than the one before.

Commander Hayden Shepard stared at the Galaxy Map with thoughtful silver-grey eyes as she pondered where to go next. She'd done as Tali had requested and helped her friend, but now she couldn't get the turian out of her head. How he'd practically yelled at her for letting Tali be on her crew, for letting her put the young quarian in danger. He'd even likely shout at her for how poor the dextro-amino dispenser paste tasted and would likely demand to know just how long his 'little one' had been eating it. She distinctly remembered him calling the masked woman his 'little sister'. A sentiment only brought on by possibly months, or years, of interaction and mutual relations, maybe even friendship. Sometimes Hayden couldn't help but feel jealous of the quarian and how easily she got along with the turian sniper. Rarely had her relations with other people had gone so smoothly. Being a military brat made it hard to keep friends, much less make them, and all the faces of the kind adults that'd guided her over the years always stuck more than the kids her own age at the time. Shaking herself out of her thought process, Hayden ignored her assistant Kelly's curious stare as she finally started to view the planets floating before her. Now wasn't the time for such things. After all, she had a job to do.

Though she had to admit it was rare for her to see turians lately. Sure she saw them all the time but never actually _saw_ them. They were just random beings amidst the equally similar looking salarian and asari that roamed the galaxy, granted they had various cloths and markings to give them ample individuality. And on top of that, the only turians she really knew by name were Nihlus, though he'd died before she could actually get to know him. Saren had been a sadistic bastard while Chellick was annoying. Hell even Executor Pallin was a pain in the ass when he really wanted to be. And that was only because the stupid man was a leader of C-Sec security. Just thinking about the ambassador on the Council made her want to smash something with her biotic Throw. But she refrained since that meant loss of funds and time for repairs on whatever the hell it was that would suffer her wrath. Plus it would get the crew giving her funny looks over what the hell she was thinking.

Taking a few calming breaths, Hayden focused on her task as best she could, looking over a gas giant of a planet for resources. Besides, she planned on getting into a more in-depth discussion with the turian in her med bay when Dr. Chakwas could reassure her that he was healthy enough to undergo such questioning. Staring at the holographic planet before her with boredom setting in, Kelly saved her by chiming in. "You've received a new message at your private terminal Commander."

"Thanks. Go take a break Kelly."

"If you say so Commander." The redhead said beaming happily as she shut down her station and headed for the elevator, probably to go to the crew deck. Closing down the Galaxy Map for the moment and thankful the preppy woman was gone, Hayden absentmindedly stepped in front of her private terminal. As she expected, it was a letter from the Turian Hierarchy concerning Garrus and his team as well as their mission. From what it read, she felt relief that a turian cruiser would be coming to check out the planet for any survivors and possibly deal with the mercs. Granted they were still there when they arrived. Though something in the letter caught her attention, and took her by surprise.

_What? Are they serious?_ She thought, leaning forward to gaze at the text a little better, even reading it several times just to ensure she wasn't seeing things. _They're letting me keep him? What the hell for?_

Biting at her lip nervously, Hayden couldn't help but let her mind jump to conclusions about what this message meant. Was this a political move of some kind? Were they just tired of him for some reason and thought a change of scenery would help? Tapping a few keys the letter was sent straight to her 'read messages' file. After a few moments of almost paranoid pondering the inner workings of fate, Hayden decided to shrug it off. Walking back up to the Galaxy Map, she activated the scanner again, overlooking the same gas giant as before. Smiling almost happily to herself, only one thought seemed to cross her mind: _looks like I got my sniper after all._

And done! I hope you guys really enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please send in reviews at your own discretion, no flames and wait patiently for what's to come. Hopefully you all understand if it takes longer than usual to update but hey. That's life right? Right. Anywho, here's what's to come:

Next time:

Chapter 2: First Day

Garrus is now an unofficial member of the Normandy crew and all's well that ends well…. Or is it? One can never tell for sure. How will our favorite turian react to the news of his new employment? Find out next time with:

_**Chapter 2: First Day!**_


	2. Chapter 2: First Day

Greetings to all! And welcome back to my latest work in the 'Mass Effect' section, '_Fortuna Venatus_'. For those of you not well learned in Latin, it means 'Fate's Game'. Good title right? I certainly hope so! Anyway! Hope you guys really like this so far. I own nothing. Though I really wish I could have Garrus all to myself. Dammit. Oh well. Enjoy!

"Iii" = speech

"_Iii_" = radio speech

_Iii_ = thought

Chapter 2: First Day

For the first time in several days, Garrus could stand on his own, his blue predatory eyes taking in the sights and sounds of the SR2-_Normandy_. He was dressed in civvies since his armor was in Jacob's care for repair as well as his rifle for maintenance. As much as he hated someone else handling his weapon, he didn't see himself in a position to argue over it. The ship itself was a marvel to behold and he wouldn't be surprised to know he was the first turian to ever see it from the inside. What with the Cerberus logo plastered everywhere and all. Hell it was even on their uniforms for Spirits sake! But every time one of them walked past, they all gave him a kind nod or a pleasant greeting accompanied with their very human, fleshy smiles. Some had even attempted to engage in conversation, most particularly a red haired human female called 'Kelly'. Sometimes human names were downright odd to him, since he was sure that 'Kelly' was a surname, not a first name. He'd long since shrugged it off when she informed him that she was named Chambers, but felt more comfortable when called Kelly. Something about 'barriers' and 'formality', likely to bring things to a personal level with other people. He hadn't really been listening when she started going off like an excited salarian. This alone irritated him but he managed to hold back. Upsetting another female wasn't on his agenda.

After the woman had _finally_ let him walk away, Garrus decided that it was time to look for Tali. Kelly had been kind enough to mention the ship's elevator in her endless spiel of chatter and how it led to all the decks. She'd even told him he was on deck 3, the Crew deck, and that Tali would likely be on deck 4 which was Engineering. This information alone had made Garrus chuckle to himself. Leave it to the quarian to be right where the engines were. Once inside, he couldn't help but find the silence of the elevator a little peaceful. Though the med bay was all kinds of quiet, it was the kind that was pretty eerie, even to him and his big, bad turian self. But now the silence had a calming quality to it. A calm that he hadn't felt in days. The low hiss of the doors told him he'd reached his destination, stepping out to look out the large window the space presented him with. Down below, he saw the shuttle he vaguely remembered seeing before. Another chuckle erupted from his throat. _It wouldn't surprise me if they're still trying to get my blood off the floor of that thing._

Leaving such musings for later, Garrus headed for one of the engineering doors only to be confronted by a pair of bickering humans. A male and a female, both with odd accents who were clearly having an almost… sibling-like disagreement about… something. After several moments of near shouting at each other, the female of the two glanced in his direction only to do a double-take, her eyes widening as they took him in. Confused by her distraction, the male looked and his expression practically mirrored hers. Garrus couldn't help but stare back, shifting his feet, suddenly feeling uncomfortable under their gaze.

"Uh…" he began before calming his nerves enough to try again, this time with a clearer, more confident tone. "I was told I could find Tali here. Do either of you…?"

This seemed to be enough to snap them out of their surprise, the female managing to silence the male before he could say anything. From what he could tell, her voice had a rather natural twang to it, but not so his ears would be irritated by it. "Tali's working on some wiring over that way but we can help ya if you like."

"I trust she hasn't had any trouble during her stay here?" It was more of a command than a question, but Garrus knew he had to be careful how he said things. Humans were rather keen on accidently misinterpreting things that were said to them.

"Like hell! She's the best boss we've ever had and the best engineer this side of the Terminus! The dear lass is like a sister to us. And with the Commander vouchin' for her… it's hard to find any reason to argue the matter." The male said almost a little too excitedly, his accent throwing Garrus through a loop almost as much as the odd word did.

"Lass?" he questioned, eying the dark redhead for answers.

The woman smiled back at him in understanding, though her voice showed strained annoyance, mostly pointed at her counterpart than him. "Pardon him. It just a Scottish word that means 'girl'. Sometimes I think he uses it too much as it is. I'm Gabriella Daniels and this is Kenneth Donnelly."

The man named Kenneth nodded, something about this human's voice sending Garrus all kinds of red flags. "Aye. We heard rumor that there was a turian on board. I guess it was no joke."

Garrus shrugged as if he didn't care. He focused instead on the two humans in front of him, his blue eyes boring into them like high tech binoculars. "No matter. I'm Garrus Vakarian and your commander has been kind in letting me stay on board while I recover. You say that Shepard vouched for her?"

"Oh yeah! Said she'd make a great addition and she has. We can't think of anyone else we'd rather work with now." The female human admitted with such honest enthusiasm that it surprised Garrus. Humans? Who were actually willing to work with aliens? He'd heard about Alliance ships giving it a shot, and he remembered a few humans in C-Sec from his policing days, but actually seeing it work was rare.

He was about to speak again when a familiar voice to his left, their right, made him turn to see a familiar purple enviro-suited girl approaching them from another walkway leading off to … somewhere. "Garrus? Garrus you're up! If you'd just sent a message I'd have come to get you! How are you feeling?"

The two humans thankfully stayed silent, watching both aliens with barely contained interest before turning back to their consoles. Garrus moved toward Tali and her end of the room, his ears just barely picking up the two humans going back to their bickering. Rolling his shoulders calmly, the turian finally responded when he was sure the two fellow engineers weren't listening. "No worse for the wear. Though I do find breathing is a little difficult at times but nothing too serious that you should worry yourself over. What about yourself? Apparently you've made quite a niche for yourself here."

"Like you wouldn't believe. At first I thought working amongst humans, even if they're hired by Cerberus, would be like trying to eat levo-amino food everyday but they proved me wrong! Plus Shepard likely gave them a hell of a lecture before I came on board. Are you sure you're feeling alright?" Tali asked when Garrus seemed to sway on his feet. The worry in her voice was pretty hard to miss.

Garrus just shook his head at her, trying to get rid of the blurred edges that hounded his vision. Chakwas had warned him that he'd have dizzy spells. "Maybe a little off balance but like I said, nothing to worry about. Now I'm just trying to get a feel for this place." Finally his mandibles flexed into a turian smirk. "Am I right in assuming that you gave her my resume?"

Tali turned her head, rubbing her hands together in tell-tale embarrassment. "You say that like I was trying to kidnap you or something! Besides, you're the only person other than the Commander who's actually a good shot with a sniper rifle."

Garrus blinked at her, not truly sure he'd heard her right. "Just 'a good shot'? Well ouch Tali. You know how to make it hurt."

She gave him a playful shove, making him laugh low in his throat at her flustered state of self. He always knew what to say to make her upset. At least the kind of upset he did on purpose. "You know what I mean! And all the other possible dossiers that the Illusive Man has shown here don't seem to be up to her specs. She even came down to engineering to rant about it, which made me think of you."

"'Rant'?" he inquired, again confused by a human word.

Tali chuckled, like she hadn't in a long time. "You'd have to see it to believe it. Not even Miranda can stop her when she gets going. Especially when she's really angry about something."

"So let me get this straight: you got talked near to death about dossiers that the Commander didn't want, thought I'd make a better choice and actually came to get me?" Garrus said in mock anger, his mandibles twitching with amusement. "You could've just called."

"We did! But your unit leader told us you were on an op on the planet we found you on and that he didn't see any problem in lending you to us. Which I thought was odd but Shepard just told them to send the coordinates and here we are."

Garrus nodded, taking in this information, though some of it honestly confused him. A human soldier, a complete and utter stranger as well as alien to him, going out of their way to help not just a quarian but a turian too? Practically an unheard scenario of as far as he knew. "Uh huh. Any news on my team? Or that Blue Suns complex? My fingers are still itching to get some bullets into their filthy skulls."

Tali shook her head, her voice sounding saddened for once. "Nothing so far but I'm sure Shepard'll let us know. She even lets me know about messages from the Migrant Fleet that she's received. I remember when I first met her she had so many questions! I almost couldn't answer them all!"

"Wait… she interrogated you?" Garrus practically demanded, anger flaring in his chest at the human woman. Just what was up with her anyway?

Before he could go off on a tangent, Tali's hands were waving his anger away, her voice quick but full of worry and surprise. And possibly a little bit of amusement. "Not interrogated Garrus, more like excessive inquiries. She's the first human I've met who's actually shown interest in my people's culture. Even I was surprised how honest she was about some of the comments she made about it all."

"What for?" he asked, hoping to sound more curious than suspicious.

Tali just chuckled at him, the light on her helmet blinking along with the sound. "She was just curious. Apparently I'm the first quarian she's ever seen. Are you hungry?"

Garrus blinked at the sudden question, suddenly realizing he hadn't really eaten a damned thing in close to a week and a half. And Chakwas had already warned him about taking it easy before he attempted anything strenuous. Finally, the turian nodded, the answer coming easily to him since it was an honest one. "A little. I haven't eaten much as I'm sure you already know. Do they even have dextro-amino foods here?"

"There's dispenser that Shepard had put in some time before I came on board. She wanted to be sure that if there were any aliens like us on board, we wouldn't starve to death. I hear she paid lots of credits for it. From what I know, just about everything I've eaten has tasted less like paste and more like actual food."

"That sounds… promising." He responded cautiously, something telling him he was in for a ride somehow.

"You'd be surprised." Tali chuckled, taking his arm and lead him to the door and likely toward the elevator. "C'mon, it's time you met Rupert."

"Rupert?" Garrus inquired, wondering if it was the name of a person, or just a thing with a person's name.

"The cook. Watch out for some of his cooking though. I was out for almost two days because of that man's 'mystery dish'." She said casually. Garrus stopped midstep to stare at her in utter shock.

"He tried to poison you?" Garrus exclaimed, bringing the two human engineers to stare at them with awe and fear at his outburst. Like before, the quarian girl was doing her best to keep him from storming out and wringing a certain human neck. She managed to speak again when he stopped in front of the elevator panel, practically poking holes into the holographic control.

"Garrus calm down! And no he didn't try to poison me. He was just trying out a recipe and wanted to know if it tasted good since it was dextro-amino based. And he didn't want to give it to the human crew since they'd likely die from an allergic reaction. Besides, it wasn't all that bad anyway. He just needed help tweaking it to a more favorable result."

This only seemed to spur the turian's anger, his blue eyes shining with barely contained rage at this news. "So it was an experiment? And you volunteered! What is this place? A floating science lab?" he glared at the elevator door, as if he wished it would come to them a lot faster so he could get some target practice in.

"No but the human and alien alliance thing is. And if you're going to be here you need to not react so quickly to things like that." Tali said as calmly as she could, in the softest voice she could muster, watching the turian warily for a reaction.

Taking this information into account, Garrus felt some of his anger die while some of the dizziness he felt before came forth to mess with his vision. Rubbing his eyes wearily, Garrus could only nod to her. "Y-you're right. I'm sorry Tali I just… I guess it's going to take me a while to adjust to this whole situation. And it's bad enough that my mission has been a complete and utter failure from the start."

"Are you feeling okay? Maybe you should get some rest instead." She offered even as they stepped onto the elevator, the quarian girl already punching in the commands.

For the first time in a while, Garrus had to laugh. "No, no it's been too long since I ate something and need to see more of this ship anyway. Can't let you have all the fun you know?"

"Of that I'm sure. Let's go get something. For the both of us." He heard her say, making him look at her when the quarian asked hesitantly. "You're not going to kill Rupert are you?"

"Kill him? No, not after you defended him so effectively." Garrus grumbled out, keeping his gaze on the metal walls, as though thinking over his options. "No I think he just earned himself a stern talkin' to."

"Should I call ahead and tell him to start running?" Tali asked, laughing once more. A sound he truly did want to hear from her.

"No, that'd just kill the fun of it." He growled, as if he were pretending to still be angry at the human for nearly killing his 'sister'. "I can't yell at him if I don't know where he is."

"Knowing you, you'll just tear the ship apart until you find him." The quarian girl stated, chuckling at the thought of her turian friend tearing up bulkheads, letting out battle roars as the balding human in question did his best to hide.

Garrus's rumbling voice brought her out of her small reverie. "Oh I'll find him. Not when he tried to poison my sister."

"Garrus!" she exclaimed, surprised he was still focusing on that, giving him yet another playful shove.

When his mandibles flared in a smile, she knew then he was messing with her. "What? I'm kidding! Can't a turian make a joke around here? And not so hard, that part of me still hurts."

"Sorry." She said almost under her breath to where he almost didn't catch it. The elevator came to almost shaky stop. "And Garrus? I'm really glad that you're here."

"Of course you are. You people need a capable sniper after all. Who better than me?" he said smugly, puffing out his chest a little as he held his head up in an almost regal manner.

Tali was too busy laughing to respond, likely hard enough to bring tears to her eyes as the turian just watched. After a while he was chuckling right along with her, earning them some curious stares from quite a few human crew members.

A few minutes later, after Tali had to keep Garrus from glaring at Rupert too hard, the two aliens were seated at one of the mess hall tables with their respective trays. Garrus had bluish grey lumps of… some kind with some kind of oddly orange paste on the side while Tali had some purplish goop and reddish brown mush on hers. Somehow he felt a strong hesitance to try it, almost afraid that it'd either taste horrible, give him an allergic reaction or just outright prove him wrong. And he hated being proven wrong. Eyeing Tali as she used a straw like apparatus to consume her own food, Garrus finally withheld a sigh as he picked up a utensil he was sure was called a 'spoon'. Hoping no one was watching him, Garrus scooped some of the orange paste and put it into his mouth, his alien tongue easily cleaned the utensil only to result in his taste buds to be assaulted by flavor. First he got tanginess, a sudden batch of sour with a bit of saltiness before it finally settled at soothingly sweet. Now he knew why it was orange rather some other odd color. It tasted almost exactly like pholsi fruit, a fruit that his family had only during the summer months to fight off the much hotter atmosphere of Palaven.

He must've been staring at the goop with a look of astonishment since Tali's amused chuckle brought his blue eyes to turn towards her. "Surprised?" she asked, her chuckling not doing much to sour Garrus's mood for once.

"A little. Either that cook is better than you say or that dispenser is top of the line." He finally admitted, eyeing the goop with both wonder and confusion.

Tali chuckled, throwing her head back a little as she did. "I think the Commander would be pleased to hear that from you."

Garrus grunted. He wasn't about to justify her words with a response. At least now some of his dizziness was fading away. Only now he had the odd lumps to deal with, using a single claw to poke one and inspect it warily. The goop had been a pleasant experience but this odd lump of blue and grey? He almost didn't know what to think of the thing. After a moment of consideration, Garrus pushed away his worries at plopped the thing into his mouth. As soon as his sharp teeth broke it, his mandibles coming against his face to keep bits from falling out, Garrus had to blink his surprise.

Tali was eyeing him, almost worried that he might suddenly be sick. "Garrus? You all right?"

He said nothing for a moment, allowing himself to slowly chew then swallow what remained of the lump before he finally muttered out. "Hm. Tuperi… with a hint of seasoned varren meat. Tasty."

"Good." Tali exclaimed happily, turning in her chair to practically shout at the aging human in her excitement. "You hear Rupert? He likes it!"

"Good to know! Now I've got about twenty other things he can eat when he damn well feels like it!" the human growled out, half shouting so he could be heard from where he stood leaning against the counter of his small kitchen space.

Garrus turned his gaze toward said human, half shouting at him himself. "Just as long as you don't try to kill me human, I just might take you up on that."

"Smartass." He heard Rupert grumble, making Garrus laugh for some reason before he retorted with a smug response.

"Ah but a skilled one."

"I see everything's going well down here." A familiar female voice cut in, sounding purely amused in a way Garrus had never heard before. Turning, he quickly saw who it was.

"Commander Shepard!" Tali exclaimed happily, almost rising before the woman waved her down, taking a chair next to the quarian as she spoke. "You're just in time! Garrus just got done sampling some of Rupert's cuisine."

Shepard raised an eyebrow, smiling knowingly as she turned her oddly colored gaze towards the turian. "And he's not barfing it back up? That's a surprise."

"I heard that!" Rupert growled out, sounding half-amused, half-insulted by the remark.

"We know!" both woman shouted at him, effectively silencing the cook before Shepard was speaking once again.

"How are you feeling Garrus? I hear you've been cooped up in the med bay since we brought you on board."

Garrus had to shrug, not truly bothered by her statement. "Blood loss does that Commander. I assure you once Dr. Chakwas gives me the 'official' write off, just tell me where to aim and I'll shoot it. And probably without even looking."

"I guess Tali wasn't lying when she said you were a smooth talker. But can you talk the talk _and_ walk the walk as well?" she asked, still smiling, her eyes flashing with challenge.

He stared at her, confused and a little fascinated but nodded as he responded almost mechanically to her inquiry. "I'm not familiar with that idiom but I get the gist of it. C-Sec had my services but they were killer on my skills. After I got done with all that bureaucratic bullshit I got with the military as soon as I could sign up. I got a bit more training but within a few months I was shooting better than my instructors. The mission you two found me on is just one of hundreds I've been on in the last two years. You could say your mission might actually be a nice change of pace."

Shepard's smile had become an impish grin, placing her arms on the tabletop so her fingers to intertwine as she spoke, nodding back at him. "Well I just got a letter from the approving of the transfer. So there's no real backing out now. And I trust that's to your liking?"

"Well I'm not dead yet." He said, indicating his food with a pointed finger. "And if something does come my way that does almost kill me and Tali, let's just say you might need a new cook by the time I'm done."

"Garrus! There's no need for that! I already told you he was experimenting!" Tali said, her voice sounding exasperated that he still had what she said in mind.

The turian just laughed, his tone hinting that he was playing with her again. "Only doctors and scientists experiment. Cooks are supposed to work off of recipes and serve it to others. Not mix and match and hope all goes well in the end."

As Tali groaned, Shepard was chuckling warmly at their banter. "Well for now hold off until you're better for that kind of activity. Until then just do well to get better. We'll be stopping off at another planet to deal with some kind of strange outpost a bunch of Blood Pack have set up. And I just might need a sniper who can take out anything I can't get to myself."

"What about my team Commander? Any word?" Garrus asked, his voice sobering as his other concern came to mind. He was anxious for answers and waiting wasn't exactly his strong suit.

The woman shook her head, her gaze hinting at regret and sadness. "None so far. The letter I received reassured me they were sending a ship to the planet to check it out properly. I'm sure they'll send word when they have something."

"Of course commander." He said nodding, understanding completely. _Looks like I've got to wait it out after all._ Garrus thought as he turned back to his food.

Taking this as a retreat from the conversation, Shepard turned to Tali, the smile renewed with her human curiosity. "How are things in Engineering Tali? Those couplings I got you working well?"

As if on cue, Tali turned toward her human commanding officer, her voice filled with girlish excitement. "Oh yes they are! They've been working perfectly. Gabby was just telling me about…"

Garrus was only half listening afterwards, watching the two women chatter as he looked on curiously. Most of his attention was on Shepard as he eyed her between scoops of the pholsi goop and the tuperi lumps. He'd dealt with humans quite a bit in his work at C-Sec, as some of the old information came flying back into his memory. Expressions were best remembered since they sometimes changed so quickly. Shepard's face was holding down a calm expression, her silver-grey eyes sparkling slightly as she talked to Tali. This woman was truly interested in what the quarian had to say, and she was smiling as she did so. Humans confused Garrus but only a little. The females were like asari, only they weren't blue and had hair, a thing no other alien race he'd ever met had. While the males were wide shouldered and bulky, human women were smaller, thinner and sometimes curvy. If he were any judge of the species, he'd have to honestly say that Shepard was likely a shining example of beauty for their kind.

_Wait… what? What on all of Palaven am I thinking? I'm a turian for Spirits sake! And she's a human. Our species aren't supposed to get along and from what I know, very few turians have actually considered taking a human as a companion. Why the hell am I thinking about this now? Of all times?_ Garrus berated himself, making sure he was watching his food rather than the object of his thoughts so to avoid things becoming awkward. The last thing he wanted to do was to ruin any possibility of a friendly relationship with the woman. From what he knew of humans and their procedures, fraternization was prohibited heavily on military vessels. _Only this isn't a military vessel._ His mind provided almost wickedly. The turian almost bit his own tongue to push the thought away. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about such things. And especially not in front of Tali. Schooling himself and his thoughts, Garrus focused on eating and managed to tune out the conversation going on in front of him.

Shepard had felt the turian's gaze on her, but chose to ignore it. She was sure Tali had noticed too but didn't mention anything. When Garrus had finally looked away, it seemed to her almost like a bashful or even embarrassed move. She knew quite a bit about turians, though she'd rarely had the time to actually talk to one. Hayden was sure that his behavior was one very few actually encountered. When speaking to him earlier, she was surprised at how human he sounded, though his voice and appearance said otherwise. Besides that, his mannerisms and tone were definitely raising red flags in Hayden's mind. Flags that hadn't come up since…. _No, no I won't think about him. Like hell I'm going to think about him now._ She thought, smiling and nodding at something Tali said, silently regretting that she wasn't really listening anymore.

Luckily Tali noticed her mental distraction and repeated herself, likely smiling amidst the purple mist that clouded her face from view. Only this time Hayden caught what she said and responded properly. They continued talking tech until Tali finally whispered to her. "So what do you think of him? Is he exactly as you expected?"

"I can't honestly say I expected him to be polite. Hell I half-expected him to be a complete and utter jerk. Probably because I'm a human and the history between our species isn't the best. But a polite turian, and a funny one at that? I didn't think turians did funny." She remarked, both knowing full well the turian in question wasn't listening.

Tali chuckled almost like a girl about to tell a fellow gossiper a sinful secret. "Well he wasn't what I expected either, and he said so about me too. He even defended me when others tried to hit on me or insult me. Garrus can be quite the gentleman when you get to know him."

"Somehow I don't doubt that. So he's really as good as you say?" Shepard asked, as if she were skeptical of the turian's skills. But she wasn't, since his file was filled with recorded marks she hadn't seen since she'd caught a glimpse of her own file from her Alliance days. She just wanted the quarian girl's honest opinion. Which she got.

Tali simply scoffed, as if she'd been asked what her favorite food was. "I've seen him shoot people from almost over a mile away, and could do it with just at least two shots. He's good Shepard. Probably as good as you, or possibly better. But I'm sure he'll prove that on the mission you have planned in a few days time."

"Indeed." Placing a mischievous smirk on her face, Hayden turned back to the turian in question, nodding at his now empty tray. "You doin' okay there Garrus?"

"Hm?" Garrus responded smoothly. "Oh me? And here I thought I'd been forgotten. Or are you ladies going to continue to talk about me while I'm sitting right here?"

"Okay you-! Garrus? What's wrong?" Tali asked, her voice once again hinted with worry when the turian suddenly swayed, even though he was still seated.

Garrus bit back a groan that tried to escape his throat. _Not now._ He thought at the pain in his side as well as in his face. "Ugh. D-don't worry it's nothing. It's just some of my meds are wearing off again. You can show me the rest of the ship later Tali."

Suddenly Shepard had a kind smile on her face as she rose from her seat, her silver-grey eyes giving him a friendly gaze he wasn't accustomed to. "Not before you get to see your quarters first."

"My what?" Garrus stammered, taken aback by this news. He'd planned on heading right back to the med bay, which was literally just behind him but his own sleeping area? Even his mind told him only officers and leaders got their own quarters, not grunts like him. The turian could only blink at the woman in disbelief. "I have quarters? Seriously?"

Shepard laughed, almost throwing her head back as she made the wonderful sound that sent a strange feeling through Garrus. If she noticed the odd look on his face, she didn't give notice when she spoke further. "You're part of my team now, and having you sleeping without a personal space of your own would be cruel of me. And the med bay's a little cramped to have a doctor and a turian both living in it. Besides, even Tali has her own room. There are bunks but that's for those mostly between shifts anyways. I've already gotten the orders through for your things to be put there once they're delivered. Lucky for you we managed to find a cot big enough for your alien ass."

"C'mon, it's just this way. And don't worry, it's right next to mine." Tali said with an amused chuckle, suddenly next to him and helping him to his unsteady feet, holding his arm just as she had before. Just standing up was a hassle, some of the pain in his skull nearly taking him off-balance.

"I'm not even here two weeks and already I'm being babied. What in all of Palaven did I do to deserve this?" he grumbled in mock annoyance as the two females lead him past the elevator and towards one of the crew doors.

Shepard was laughing at him again. Great. "Simple: you let us come and find you."

"Great. I just might work harder to be elusive next time." He promised, giving the woman a turian smile, his tone likely hinting at something else. The look she gave him confused him, something about it sending more red flags to various parts of his mind, as well as his anatomy.

That damned smile was back again, a mischievous in her eye. "Smartass."

Garrus chuckled, somehow believing that'd become the word of the day.

Blue eyes of cerulean gazed at the space before them, a predatory set of eyes taking in the room that was alien to them. Mandibles flexing thoughtfully, fighting down the pain growing in his chest, Garrus took in the new space with a level of appreciation. It was bare of anything personal though once his things got on board he could easily change that. He could feel Tali and Shepard watching him from the doorway, Shepard with her arms crossed over her chest and leaning back in an almost smug sort of way while Tali seemed to be rubbing her hands together. Only one word came to mind: they were both nervous. Almost as if they expected him to be angry about the place he'd been dealt. Though Garrus wasn't angry, or frustrated at what he'd been presented with. He was actually a little relieved. It was a little smaller than he was used to but a little bigger than he expected. Not that he wanted anything _big_ or anything. He just didn't want to be coddled or treated like something that could easily break at the slightest touch or sudden wrong move or something. Mandibles flaring in a smirk, he turned to face the two women still watching him.

"This'll do nicely. Thanks Commander." He said, giving her an indication of his head which he knew was a human sign of appreciation.

The woman before him waved it off with a light scoff. "Shepard is just fine. We're teammates now. I don't see why you can't use my name."

"I see. I understand ma'am." He said, nodding at her, his feet apart and hands behind his back in a loose military stance. "Was there anything you needed at this time?"

"Nothing for now. Get some rest. I'll tell Chakwas she needs to come over and give you your meds. Tali and I still have work to do. Get well Vakarian." She said sternly, though the smirk still on her thin, pink lips told him otherwise.

"I'll come check on you later Garrus." Tali said reassuringly, standing in the doorway next to his new commander as if she were leaving a child in another person's care.

Garrus chuckled, the words coming forth before he could stop them. "Take your time ladies. No need to rush. There's plenty of me to go around."

He couldn't quite tell but he was sure that Tali was biting down a laugh while Shepard gave him a look. And it was such a look even her watchful eyes flashed with something he couldn't quite place. Amusement? Astonishment? Oh hell was he flirting now? And in front of Tali no less? And not just with anybody but with his new commanding officer? Both women muttered their goodbyes to him, the door sliding shut quickly enough for Garrus to finally release his cool appearance to slump onto the bed and groan.

_Oh Spirits above did I just say that? Of all the things to say! And to a human! What in the hell is wrong with me? I don't even know her!_ He thought to himself, the pain in his chest an almost secondary thing to his conflicted thoughts. Never before had something like this happened to him and he honestly found it scary and worrisome. Was his mind playing tricks on him or were these rising emotions real? Garrus groaned again, lying down to find the unusually soft mattress and sheets comforting and a definite change from the stiff med bay table. He'd settled himself rather nicely and was about to give in to sleep when the door to his new quarters opened, nearly making him sit up. When his eyes took in the new arrival, he was relieved to see it was Chakwas with a look of understanding on her face.

"You're lucky I make house calls Officer Vakarian or you'd have to hustle yourself over ten yards to me rather than the other way around. How are you feeling? Those new medications I prescribed working well for you?" she asked kindly, opening her small kit to bring forth a syringe and a bottle of clear liquid he was sure she'd given him before.

He nodded at her, but noticed she wasn't looking at him and spoke, his voice weak and filled with oncoming sleep. "They're working well, thanks. I'll be glad for the day I won't have to take them anymore though."

"Without a doubt. Just lie down. I'll do the rest." She said gently, the turian complying gladly as a small sting accompanied him to his cloud of softness. His tired eyes began to blur his vision, the afterimage of the old woman showing she had quickly packed and risen to her feet, her voice an amused whisper. "See you tomorrow Officer Vakarian."

"Until tomorrow Doctor." He managed to say sleepily, barely hearing the door to his quarters click shut as he was left to the empty silence of his new room. The meds seemed to take seconds to be put into effect, the world quickly vanishing in a thick veil of darkness.

A tapping noise was the first thing he heard some time later. He wasn't sure if it was a few hours or even just the next day. All he knew that someone, or something, was tapping at his door and calling to him in a voice he oddly enough couldn't place for the life of him. Garrus wanted to open his eyes, he really did, but the aftereffects of sleep kept them shut, kept his body in the position he last remembered himself to be in. Time went by and Garrus could still hear the noise at his door, almost too loud and insistent to be just anybody. When it sounded off again, Garrus's mind finally told him the person at his door was indeed Tali, who was once again likely filled mask deep with worry. The turian wanted to get up and let her in, reassure her that he was alright and many other things that came to mind but his body still refused to move. His eyes still refused to open as he commanded and Garrus was sure that his new meds likely had something to do with it. He could hear Tali getting frustrated and was likely fiddling with her omni-tool to get the door open, which he now vaguely remembered locking at some point after Dr. Chakwas had left. After what seemed like forever, Garrus felt his body shift, if only slightly. This action only seemed to bring back how comfortable he was, and how moving was now out of the question. Likely his body was punishing him for all the stress and duress it'd been forced to endure, on top of wounds that were still healing, even with advanced medical help. It was by this moment Tali managed to get the door open, her voice ringing in the silence of the room.

"Garrus what're you—oh keelah!" he heard her say, and if he could truly move, he would've smiled.

Tali was swift to silence herself at the sight of her sleeping friend. It was very rare she ever saw him sleeping and now her plans to get him to show up for dinner were ruined. The turian sniper looked too peaceful for her to disturb him now. Before she'd left him he'd looked so tired, almost as if the whole world were trying to drag him down. Something she'd hoped to cure with more food, but there was no chance of it now. Standing in the doorway of the turian's quarters, now feeling awkward even though there was likely nothing to be awkward over. She was about to shut the door and leave when she turned to find Shepard jogging over, her face showing her confusion.

"Tali why are you-?" the woman in question asked before Tali quickly waved her gloved hands at the human female.

"Shh!" Shepard snapped her mouth shut in response, staring at the quarian in confusion, wondering slightly why she'd complied to begin with. Tali pointed into the dark room at the turian's sleeping form, an expression of understanding blooming on Hayden's face.

"Oh. I see. You worried?" she whispered, giving the turian a look of concern before eyeing the girl before her. Easing the quarian's worries had suddenly become a priority since the turian had come on board. Not something she was unwilling to deal with, but soon it might prove tedious.

Tali nodded, wringing her hands together nervously. "Just a little. I was hoping to get him to join us for dinner but I guess not."

"You were worried for your friend. I can understand that. Go ahead and get some grub. I'll handle things here." Hayden said coolly, a kind smile making itself at home on her face.

The quarian female stared at her, and likely blinked in surprise if the two white orbs briefly vanishing in the purple abyss of her mask was any indication. "Are you sure? I know you don't have much experience with turians but-."

"Tali… don't make me order you. It's fine. Besides I was planning on checking on him myself in a while anyway." Hayden remarked coolly, the statement roughly the truth the quarian was likely looking for. "You go on ahead. I'll catch up."

After what felt like forever, the quarian girl finally relented, nodding in acceptance to her commander's words. "Alright commander. I'll see you later."

Shepard nodded, smiling as the quarian turned and left. Looking into the semi-dark room, Hayden could clearly see the sleeping turian lying on the bunk, his back to the wall so that his scarred right side was out of view. Though the room felt warm enough, Hayden knew enough about turians to know they hated the cold since their home world was so hot and humid. With no thought to privacy or even personal space, Hayden entered and subconsciously found the extra blanket hidden away in a small cabinet of a closet. Being honest with herself, Hayden had never seen a sleeping turian either, but wasn't about to let her curiosity get the better of her. Focusing on her task, the human woman quickly unfolded the large wool cloth item, satisfied that it was big enough to cover the turian. With no hesitation, she practically tossed the thing over him, holding onto the edge of it almost like it were a sail. Before the fabric settled on the alien's prone form, Hayden was already diving forward, careful not to disturb the male as she tucked the soft material around whatever sides she could reach. If one were observing her at such a moment, one would think she were tucking a child in to bed just before the daily bedtime story was told to the anxious youth.

But the turian before her wasn't a child and he wasn't even awake, as far as she knew, for a 'bedtime story'. So she decided to deal with what she got and made sure he was completely covered save for his head, pausing only to make sure his arm wasn't dangling awkwardly over the side of the bed. Though he was dressed in civvies, Garrus seemed to still have the mind to put gloves on. Curiosity fought with dutiful command as Hayden struggled with the decision to take the glove off and see just what it felt like to touch a turian. Her military side won out, making her bite her lip before she started to rise to leave. If not for the hand that suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist she would have. Stunned and wide eyed, Hayden turned to find a predatory eye, blue like the sky and still half-filled with sleep stared up at her.

"Garrus?" she asked, half wondering if his actions were simply brought on by nightly movements or just odd dreaming.

Mandibles twitching as his eyes remained focused on her, albeit with a sleepy look in them, he spoke. "Shepard… you sneak into other people's rooms often?"

Hayden found herself smirking at the remark, once again taking her spot next to his bed, this time sitting on the cool floor. "Only when they're sick or down for the count, like you are."

"So nice to feel special. Was Tali just here? I coulda sworn…" he started to say, his words trailing off, his voice sounding weak and unsure. What she did next truly surprised him.

Turning her hand in his grip, Hayden let her fingers intertwine with his as she spoke, her voice calm and low. "Just go back to sleep for now. Don't worry about anything else."

"I can live with that." The turian stated with some hesitation, his eyes seeming to glitter with the thoughts he was pushing away.

"And Garrus?" she said, chuckling a little until his eyes focused on her again.

"Yes?"

Her words came in a whisper, a mirthful look on her face as if he'd said something funny to her. "You can let go of my hand now."

"Oh." Garrus replied softly, his eyes following his own arm to where their hands were joined and slowly let go. Apparently the meds were messing with his reaction times. After a moment of tense silence, Garrus felt he had to mumble out. "Sorry."

"No problem." The human female said, shrugging it off, absently noticing his arm had gone completely limp and situated it back onto the bed at his side and under the blanket as she went on to ask. "How are you feeling?"

For once, Garrus let out a tired sigh as he briefly shut his eyes and pressed his head into the soft pillow. What to say? What could he say? She _was_ his new commanding officer. And from what he knew, humans got particularly angry if you lied to them about something. So, in true turian form, he opened his eyes to look at her, and told the truth. "Numb, sleepy… a little out of it. Could be my wounds, could be my meds. I don't even know anymore."

"When are you going to tell Tali about what happened to your face?" he noticed the mirthful look was gone, replaced by a concerned stare, her brows coming together as she frowned. "She was tearing the ship up when she heard."

Garrus couldn't help but chuckle, the sound slightly muffled thanks to the pillow holding his right mandible in its soft grasp. If he could shake his head he would've but he resolved to just shrugging mildly instead. "That's Tali: overreact and overanalyze. I got almost fifty messages from her all in the same hour because of this."

This time Shepard laughed, a sound he found intriguingly musical all of a sudden, her words quickly bringing him away from his strange thoughts. "Yeah, we had to pry her away from her terminal so she could get some work done. It's a wonder our drive core didn't overload she was so worried."

Doing his best to glare at her, Garrus managed to sound somewhat insulted by the woman's words about his foster sister. "Is that the only reason I'm on this ship? So your engineer can focus on her job?"

"No." she said simply, the smile once again gracing her pink lips, making him eye her cautiously. From what he knew, humans could be sneaky when they wanted to be, not to mention moody. It was likely this particular human was being serious, or was just messing with him.

"Oh? Do tell human."

"Better: I'll make you a deal." She said, the smile becoming a devilish looking grin as her silver-grey eyes sparkled brightly in the dark.

Garrus couldn't help but sigh, a mild laugh rumbling through his chest. "This sounds like one of those 'deal with the devil' things for some reason."

Once again Shepard laughed at him, the sound making Garrus think of music for some reason that he couldn't' explain. "I'm sure but it's not that devious. When you're up and about, and maybe when we're all together, you tell us your story about your face, and I'll tell you why I went out of my way to find you. Deal?"

He blinked, taking in this information as Shepard stared back, silent but expectant. After a few moments of consideration, Garrus managed to nod at this, the pillow once again hindering his movement. "I can see the fairness of this. But then Tali has to tell a story too."

Hayden suddenly scowled, as if in thought before shaking her head. "No I think I've heard all of hers."

"We'll have to see about that then." Garrus couldn't help but laugh, his voice losing some of its strength as sleep started to sneak up on him again. "Deal."

The smile was back, bright and full of happiness he'd rarely seen on a human's face, the female human spoke with a sense of pride as she got up to leave. "Good. Now sleep. That's an order."

"Yes ma'am." Garrus snickered, calling out just as the woman reached the doorway to his quarters. "And Commander?"

Stopping and half turning, she responded in a voice almost as soft as his. "Yes?"

Smiling to himself and unsure if she could see, Garrus eyed her silhouette in the doorway as he spoke as smugly as his voice would allow. "Thanks for the tuck in. It's so nice to know I'm in such good hands."

Hayden hoped the darkness kept him from seeing her bright red blush discoloring her face and neck, all the while managing to keep her voice cool and steady in turn. "I could say the same. You just might make a place for yourself here yet."

Garrus blinked, astonished. He'd expected the woman to act a little flustered or at least embarrassed by his words. Only she'd just stood firm and acted like he'd said something completely different than what he'd said. As if he'd just informed her of something as commonplace as a cracked bulkhead or a malfunctioning vent. Just as casually and on-beat as a well-accustomed statement, not a random vaguely sexual suggestion. Before he could say anything more, she was already gone and the door was closed, leaving him in the dark once more. Greatly confused by their exchange, Garrus could only close his eyes and try to sleep away the pain that numbly persisted behind a shield of drugs. The only thing save the silence and the drugs that put him out this time was the light smell of cinnamon coming from where his hand had touched hers. Bringing his palm to his flat nose, he took a cautious whiff of the new scent, though he knew that most human things smelled odd or disgusting. This scent however, smelled as sweet and spicy as its name suggested, helping him forget some of the stressful thoughts still dogging the back of his mind as he lost to unconsciousness.

And that's the end of that! So ends chapter 2 and I hope it's a best seller to everybody who read it. But enough about that now. It's time for chapter 3 to roll right on in. be patient everybody. Great rewards come to those who wait! Here's what's to come:

Next chapter:

Chapter 3: On the Job With You

Things are already heating up between our two favorite characters and it's not getting any cooler. Could their first mission together further intertwine their destinies or are things set to pull them tragically apart? Find out when we come back in the next installment of '_Fortuna Venatus_':

_**Chapter 3: On the Job With You!**_


	3. Chapter 3: On the Job With You

Welcome back all and welcome to the third installment of my latest work, '_Fortuna Venatus_'! If anything, I've been anticipating this more than any reader, since even I didn't know how it would turn out until it was over. Ah the spice of a writer's life. Such a sweet and wonderful scent ... that's thankfully proverbial and doesn't make me sneeze. Ugh. Boogers everywhere. Nasty. Anyway, let's get things started shall we? I don't own '_Mass Effect_' but gods in heaven I'll fight every woman on the planet to the death over Garrus. I might not play dirty. Enjoy!

"Iii" = speech

"_Iii_" = radio speech

_Iii_ = thought

Chapter 3: On the Job With You

It was official. Garrus hated trees. He'd be damned to the human's nine rings of Hell if he ever saw another damned tree again just as he almost bumped into yet another tree. The fog of the planet they were on was so thick even his alien eyes were having trouble seeing through the mist, despite his visor's constant display of information to help him. It was his first mission on Shepard's team and he couldn't help but feel this damn forest was out to make a fool out of him in front of his new teammates. That is until the other human woman on the team, Miranda Lawson, promptly walked right into a tree herself some few feet away. Her cry of pain and surprise came over the radio channel, making Garrus fight down howls of laughter at the woman's discomfort. When he'd first met her nearly three days ago after he woke up from his nearly day and a half nap, the turian couldn't help but feel uncomfortable around the odd sounding woman. Everything about her was off and he knew it. Hell he could even smell it whenever she was close enough or a draft sent her smell his way. And he knew just from looking at her that her body was a man's wet dream come to life. Her figure was just too perfect, she was almost way too smart and her personality was too snooty for his tastes. But they were crewmates now and he had no choice but to get used to her. Even if it meant dealing with her almost clinical smell mixed with a flowery scent he wasn't about to try and identify.

Their first meeting had been a little tense since he wasn't sure how to address her and she was just reeking of overconfidence. Just one of the many things, he was pretty damn sure, to be put on his steadily growing mental list on why Garrus was slowly growing to hate the woman who kept reminding him she outranked him. No matter what Shepard said. This sentence had confused him but he refused to show it as they broke off to their own duties, her to her office and him to the elevator to the armory. Just as soon as he'd exited the elevator did he meet, much to his surprise and annoyance, the very bubbly Kelly Chambers. Their one-sided conversation was mostly the redhead chatting her head off at him, making him stare and wonder if he could knock her out right then and there just to get her to shut up. Luckily he was saved by another human crewmember who happened upon his suffering. Once the female was distracted, Garrus slipped away before giving his unnamed savior an appreciative nod. Within moments he was through another door and into the armory, which was practically lined with weapons.

Standing at a desk was none other than Jacob Taylor, the dark skinned human he'd seen with Shepard and Tali when they picked him up. Their situation and his condition had done little in helping him get acquainted with the human, but now was a better time than any. Not really one to waste people's time, Garrus didn't hesitate to speak when the human didn't notice him come in, or pretended not to.

With a calm stance and a slightly smug air that he could muster, Garrus watched the dark-skinned, dark eyed human turned to face him as he spoke. "I hear you're the one holding my gear hostage. My hopes are it's not going to be an on-going thing or is it just because I just so happened to be the only one with holes in their armor?"

Seconds later the human's thick lips opened to reveal white teeth as he laughed with a voice he vaguely remembered. When he finished, the somewhat rough voice he knew belonged to the man before him filled the room. "Shepard warned me you were a wisecracker. I guess she wasn't kidding."

Yet another confusing human term he needed to ask Tali about later. That is until Jacob gave him his own explanation when he just stared. "It means you're a wise guy, a guy who makes jokes. Just a play on words that's all. No worries, your stuff's right over here. Tali even said you might be coming in today so I did some last minute work just in case."

Guiding the turian over to the main table, he lay out some of the weapons in question, including the cobalt blue and black armor that Garrus felt almost naked without. Backing away, Jacob leaned casually against the wall of the armory as he watched the turian inspect his work of he'd done on the man's gear. Looking it all over with an expert eye that only a turian of his standards could have, Garrus couldn't help but find himself relatively speechless.

Picking up the armor chest plate, he turned it in his three-fingered hands in awe of the flawless way the human had patched up the holes. "This is… this is good work. I'm surprised you know this much about turian armor plates. You saved me having to find someone more attuned to this kind of work to get it fixed." And almost under his breath and with a light chuckle he added. "And a helluva lot of credits."

Again Jacob chuckled at the turian's words, smiling a kind smile that unlike most of the humans he'd met didn't look plastered on. "You're welcome. And I gave your guns some tuning. That is until Shepard issues you some new ones for her mission tomorrow."

Garrus blinked, turning to face the human leaning against the wall. "New weapons? She's that well funded?"

The dark skinned man nearly threw his head back in amused laughter at the question, as if he'd heard it so often it brought him pleasure for some reason. "This whole mission is. She's just in control of what we do and how we do it. Not who pays us. At least for now."

"You make that seem like your employment is temporary. I'm guessing Cerberus isn't really running the show like everyone else in the galaxy thinks." Garrus mused as he put the gun back into its case, closing it up now that his inspection was complete.

"The galaxy needs Shepard to save it. And Shepard needs our help to do it. Who cares about Cerberus when the real problem is the Collectors? Once we solve that problem? Well… that's up to Shepard." The human's response surprised Garrus, making him turn and blink at said human with a questioning look.

"You won't stay with Cerberus if she isn't?" he inquired, truly curious.

Jacob nodded, coming to stand next to the table, a confident smile still on his lips. "You bet. She's a better commander than the ones I've had in the past and that's sayin' somethin'. Eden Prime? Ilos? The Citadel and Sovereign? Just warm up shots for the Collectors and whatever else that's comin' in her book if you think about it."

Somehow the turian couldn't help but chuckle in response. "Somehow I don't doubt that. I read about it all after it happened but even then the details were sketchy at best. But if someone like Shepard needs me for a mission like this, then I'm all in. it's been a while since I've been allowed to shoot something that isn't off-limits."

"Well restrain yourself for the actual targets, and not the wall of the armory. Besides, you're not the only one who got tired of the politics." Jacob said, his tone sobering as a look of annoyance flashed through his eyes at deep-set memories.

Garrus grunted at the man's words with a shrug. "I guess that answers a few of my questions. Only a military man could do this kind of work and get away with it. I guess that means I've got some more reading to do if I'm going to know damn near everything about everybody on this ship."

"You can always ask you know." The dark-skinned man said coolly, the smile returning to his face as the turian paused in picking up the sniper rifle case.

"This is… true. But knowing me I'm likely going to say something humorous and not know it. Get myself laughed at. I'd rather know what I'm walking into rather than jumping in and regretting it later." He grumbled, not meeting the human's gaze, even when the human just chuckled back at him again.

"Well thanks to us, Tali should be able to help you out with that."

"Somehow I don't doubt that." Garrus muttered half to himself, mandible flexing in a minor grin before turning to leave.

"Hold on. I'm almost done here. If you wait I can help you haul your stuff down to the crew deck before headin' to lunch. You up for it?"

"I don't see why not. It's... how do you humans say? 'Two birds with one stone'? That one always confused me."

"'Two issues with the same action'. That's what you're looking for."

Garrus nodded, his expression likely thoughtful despite his face being different from a human's. As promised, the tall turian waited the amount of time Jacob had specified before said male human finally picked up the container with his weapons in them and headed for the door. Within moments they were both in the elevator, the box of metal moving quickly enough for their intentions. When the doors opened and they both stepped out, Jacob turned to him.

"Where to big guy?" the dark skinned male inquired, the friendly smile still on his face, dark eyes casually watching the turian from direction.

"My quarters should be fine." Garrus stated calmly, though his mind was racing at just how strange it was that humans were being kind to him. He was so accustomed to them being cold and distant or loud and angry at him. This switch in attitude was a first for him. "And… just Garrus will be fine too."

"Then just call me Jacob and we'll be good. C'mon, my stomach's gonna eat my intestines." Jacob said chuckling, walking out of the armory to head for the elevator, both ignoring the various crew who turned to look at them.

Garrus couldn't help but chuckle in turn, finally letting some of his smugness show. "If that's true, I know of some good meds that'll kill the pain."

"Oh you would!" the human male said with a burst of laughter, barely even looking at the console as the elevator doors closed and it was moving downwards. Then for a moment, Jacob suddenly hesitated. "How are your injuries? I heard you were pretty bad."

The turian shrugged indifferently, hoping to ease the human's sudden tension. "A few holes here, some blood loss there. Something your doctor was well prepared for surprisingly enough. For a few moments I'd thought you'd all haul me to the nearest turian cruiser for help but your Dr. Chakwas knows what she's doing. Is everyone on this ship so impressive?"

"That's about right. We were handpicked to help Shepard. All the way down to the maintenance crew. Only the best for takin' down the Collectors." Suddenly Jacob was smiling again as if in amusement. "Hell even Joker got recruited for this mission, and he used to be Alliance like me."

"Joker?" Garrus asked, suddenly confused. So far he hadn't met anyone by such a name, if it was even a name.

The dark skinned male gave him a slight look before it came to him. "Oh right, you haven't met everybody. Joker's the pilot, though his real name's Jeff. His nickname's from his academy days but it's stuck with everybody who knows him ever since."

"I see. I guess that makes sense. He's that talented?" he asked, stepping forward as the elevator stopped to let them out, allowing him to lead the way toward his quarters.

"You bet. He flies this old girl like he can make it do a fancy dance, even though he can't exactly make any fancy moves himself."

"He can't? Or won't?" Garrus just had to ask. Sometimes he couldn't help but be sarcastic when people spoke to him.

Thankfully Jacob took it in stride, shrugging as he spoke. "Simply can't. The guy's got brittle bones and he practically breaks his fingers whenever he mutes EDI for getting technical with him."

Another wave of confusion hit Garrus like a brick wall. Just who exactly were these strange people aboard this ship? Did humans finally run out of names to name their children? Or was he just missing something. "EDI?"

As if by some kind of command, a blue orb of some sort appeared from a piece of equipment he'd until then ignored, the bright lights that were its face shimmered as it spoke in a truly synthesized voice. "Greetings Officer Vakarian. I trust you're acclimatizing well to the _Normandy_?"

Garrus was able to contain his surprise but it didn't stop his mandibles from twitching in astonishment. Either Jacob didn't notice this or decided not to comment as he shrugged again, watching Garrus calmly. "That's EDI, the ship's AI. Cerberus made sure we had that installed for this mission too. She helps Joker and the rest of the crew run the ship while Shepard focuses on other things that actually matter to her."

"You do realize that AI's are dangerous? Especially when they get egos?" Garrus growled dangerously, scowling at the blue ball of light.

Before Jacob could respond, EDI interjected in a tone that suggested she wasn't the least bit offended or concerned with his opinion. "Contrary to popular belief Officer Vakarian, Cerberus and the Illusive Man have taken precautions in my construction to where I do not have direct control of the ship. I do, however, control the cyber defense systems should anyone attempt to hack the ship's controls and our database. You and I will also be working on getting the ship's weapons online whenever you have had a chance to look at them. I look forward to working with you Officer Vakarian."

Without so much as another word, the blue orb vanished, leaving both men standing almost awkwardly in the hallway. Garrus could only stare at where it'd been before turning to the human next to him. "That was… odd."

Jacob chuckled at this. "Don't worry about it. Even I was a little on edge when I first met EDI but you'll get used to it." He turned to open the door to Garrus' quarters for them both, quickly dispensing of their load. "Now how about gettin' some lunch? I'm starvin'."

"Well you can help me kill Rupert if he tries to give me anything that may kill me." Garrus grumbled aloud, giving the man a turian smirk. Maybe this place wouldn't be so bad after all. Since it was out of his hands and whatnot.

Again Jacob was laughing as they walked down the corridor together, heading straight for the mess hall, some of the other crew quickly edging out of the turian's way. "I'm way ahead of ya. We can both kill him if he gives us _both_ something too dangerous to eat."

"I like the way you think." Garrus chuckled, his smirk becoming a smile. Other than Tali, he couldn't help but think that he might've found a good friend to rely on.

Jacob had laughed, a deep sound he now knew he was going to be hearing a lot from the man next to him as they'd walked toward Rupert's miniature kitchen area. And that'd been yesterday afternoon. Now here he was on some random planet, in his newly repaired armor which fit him better than when he'd gotten it, with weapons fine-tuned practically to perfection, with two women surrounded by fog. He thought his luck couldn't get any worse until finally, amidst the white haze, someone started to shoot at them. As the report had said, Blood Pack gang members had set up shop on the planet for reasons that likely weren't good. From he remembered from the briefing not an hour earlier, they'd set up a post to try and attack supply vessels on their way to and fro the colonies near the Rim. With both krogan and vorcha soldiers on the attack, anyone not properly equipped was in for trouble. Thankfully the mist that covered their line of vision to the enemy was clearing up. And so it was for their opponents.

Flashes of blue, whirling energy told Garrus that his two female companions were sending their adversaries some gifts in the form of biotic attacks, accompanied by submachine gun fire. Species be damned these women could shoot. A warp attack came from Miranda with a pistol chaser while Shepard gave the enemy a few tastes of reave and push. Garrus, on the other hand, gave the enemy a good serving of overload for their shields as he cut them down easy with his assault rifle. Adrenaline that surged through his veins almost made him think that the moments they spent fighting took seconds as they moved ahead. Wave after wave of mercs attempted to hold them down but after a few close calls, they'd gotten into the mercenary base with no real issues. Shepard had made quick work of the door before they moved on to the people inside, Garrus finding himself barely in need of direction to take down the enemies before them. Yet, through it all, he couldn't help but feel his commanding officer's eyes on him. Almost like the whole thing was one big demonstration. A demonstration of his skills in the field for her to judge for herself.

Such thoughts were quickly abandoned when a few bullets whizzed by his head, scratching his shields enough to make them flicker from the impact. He rose from his position behind a fallen crate to fill another Blood Pack vorcha full of holes before ducking down again before overloading a krogan's shield. It was shot to death moments later by Shepard, who didn't stop until it was down, even when her shields flickered as she was shot at. Not even a few seconds after the krogan died, she was moving forward, sending a pull at a few vorcha and shot the closest ones when they landed. Miranda also moved forward, but only did so behind the various cover the large room they'd come to provided. Not wanting to be left behind, Garrus quickly did the same, sending a few shots toward the enemy before skillfully sliding behind a rather tall metal box. Quickly working his omni-tool, Garrus managed to overload a few of the vorcha shields in time for the two female humans to shoot them full of holes. Wasting no time, the turian was pulling out his sniper rifle, swiftly gazing down the scope to take down some more oncoming vorcha before switching back to his assault rifle.

Even as he took down the still oncoming vorcha cannon fodder, Garrus heard his comm. beep in his ear, forcing him to tap it before going back to shooting. He had to fight to keep from gasping into the radio. "Need something Commander? I'm kinda busy not getting you two shot up."

"_Go left, I'm going right. We need to flank these idiots. Miranda, you're on center. Hit 'em with everything people!_" he heard her practically bark over the loud gunfire, Miranda's response lost as a rocket screeched past him and slammed into a tree some few feet away from where he hid.

"Yes ma'am." Garrus muttered as the comm. went dead, leaving him to himself as he shot another vorcha through the chest. Looking around, the turian was darting between various bits of cover, a crate here, a tree or rock there. Even with the mist now a lot thinner than it'd been only moments earlier, it was still hard to see what was what. Dirt, rocks and trees had given way to metal crates and other foreign items clearly built within a few months. Despite the now thin mist, Garrus could barely make out the door to the facility, its panel glowing green in the mix of white and gray. Movement to his right caught his attention. It was Shepard, doing as she said she would, moving with a swiftness he'd only heard of in the terms of humans. Miranda appeared also only a few crates away, briefly glancing at him before nodding then looking away. As soon as she looked away, the door to the facility opened, letting vorcha and krogan come streaming out with guns echoing into the fog.

With pinpoint accuracy, Garrus and Miranda opened fire, taking down a few vorcha while the rest managed to get to cover. Taking the enemy head-on wasn't Garrus's style, as he would rather take them down one by one from afar, but he had orders. The mere thought of taking these ugly things on, getting right in their faces, bothered Garrus, but he swallowed his pride and moved forward. In moments he'd managed to get a good ways to the left of the facility's doorway, taking down vorcha when they dared come into sight. Miranda had the most of the enemy forces focused on her and to her right, Shepard popping in and out of cover with spurts of gunfire and biotic power. As if to add to the scene, a vorcha pyrotech's tank was somehow nicked by her spray of lead, another few rounds causing the thing to explode. Fire and guts spewed into the air, giving the place a very special stink of poorly cooked flesh. Not even pausing Shepard was already moving again, practically shooting another vorcha right in the face. Garrus turned his eyes back to his own opponents, knowing that Shepard was bound to be watching him somehow. No sooner did he look away from her, that he saw a very angry krogan come charging straight at him.

Instinct overcame training as Garrus found himself jumping and rolling out of the way, pulling his pistol out in the hopes of diminishing its armor. The krogan, a bulky and green eyed ugly thing, just roared at him as it handled his shotgun with ease. Garrus was moving again, the blast of metal pellets missing him by mere centimeters. To reiterate, his shields flickered as some of the extra ammunition bounced off, leaving a crate with a corner missing, and Garrus on his back. His pistol still very much in hand, Garrus busied himself with pulling the trigger as many times as his clip would allow, reloading as the krogan stumbled. After a few more shots, the large thing finally fell, its corpse twitching slightly as it lay on the ground. Garrus rolled back to his feet quickly, ignoring his latest kill in favor of seeing how his teammates were fairing. Eyes trained all too well, the turian saw Miranda was holding her own but Shepard was gone. Where had she gone? Had she spoken over the comm. and he'd missed it?

Crouching amidst the still standing crates, Garrus got back to his job: killing the mercenaries, making them once again split their attentions. Somehow like he knew she would, Miranda was suddenly on the radio, her oddly accented voice sounding quite annoyed with him over the gunfire. "_Where have you been? I came damn close to being shot to hell because of you!_"

Garrus bit down the angry curses he had for the woman, grounding out his excuse in anger instead. "Sorry about that. It's hard to do one's job when a krogan is trying to run you over. Where's Shepard? I don't see her."

"_I thought she was with you!_" Miranda practically yelled over the comm., sounding a little more irritated than she should've been.

Before Garrus could retort, Hayden's voice came between them. "_Looking for me?_"

Ducking into cover before firing a few rounds at the enemy, Garrus was the first to express surprise. "Shepard? Where are you? We're up to our ears in mercs here."

"_Let's just say I'm about to give these bad boys a hell of a surprise. Get ready to get to some cover. We just might make it home in time for lunch._" She said casually, almost as if in humor, her brown hair a bob of dark color on the other side of the cleared space.

If she could see him, she would've seen him with his mouth agape, mandibles shifting with amazement. "We're getting shot at from all sides, fighting for our lives, and all you can think about is food?"

"_What? It's roast beef day. I like roast beef. I'd recommend it but I can't help but think you might be allergic._" Shepard growled back, her amusement killing her indignity.

From amidst the gunfire, Miranda managed to put in her own two cents. "You could order roast beef rather than wait for a specific day."

"_I would but then people get bored and say 'roast beef? Again?' Having the same thing every single day is boring, and annoyingly repetitive._" Shepard defended, a smirk on her lips clearly heard over the radio.

Garrus had to shake his head in disbelief. Of all the conversations to have during a fire fight, he never knew just how strange humans were until now. Before either woman could respond, he had to ask. "Are all humans so easily bored?" spotting something with his sharp turian gaze, Garrus coolly switched weapons, speaking almost sweetly into his comm. "Oh, Commander? Get down."

"_What?_" he heard her ask before he took the shot with his sniper rifle, the sound of it thundering into the mist. Calmly he watched the human woman jump as a merc who'd gotten behind her fell lifeless. He almost laughed when her voice sounded off. "_Whoa!_"

"You all right?" Garrus inquired, his politeness almost mocking.

"_I'm good._" Shepard said, sounding a little off but unhurt. "_Good eye. Thought I got them all._"

"Obviously not. Where did you go?" he asked again, curiosity winning over his smugness for once in his life.

Again one could hear her smile over the radio as she spoke. "_I told you. We might want to duck in a minute._"

"What-?"

Garrus's words fell short as a loud boom shook the ground, knocking literally everyone off their feet. Everything shook as more explosions rocked them and their opponents. As if on some kind of cue, fire burst from the cracks in the building's outer shell, their sudden light clearing away some of the mist around them. No sooner did the explosions stop did Garrus notice that the krogan he'd dealt with earlier wasn't as dead as he'd hoped. Growling and understandably angry at being shot near to death, the bulky krogan was trying to get to his feet, a fierce look in his eyes as it stared at Garrus. Needless to say, Garrus wasn't prepared to fight off a half dead krogan, especially when it was about to go blood rage on him. There was no time to turn and fire, or even change weapons from sniper rifle to assault rifle by the time the krogan was on his feet, growling in his fury.

Just as the krogan was about to roar and start running at him, the sound of gunfire caught them both by surprise. Suddenly Shepard was next to him, with her pistol in hand, glaring at the now crumpling body of the krogan as it finally died. Somewhere off to the side, Miranda was no doubt picking off any mercs that'd evaded their initial sweep. Turning to the fallen turian, Hayden Shepard's silver grey eyes bore down on his surprised blue ones. "You alright there Vakarian? You look a little off."

Blinking away his surprise, Garrus quickly reestablished his usual smug look on his face, no matter how Shepard smiled knowingly at him. "I-I'm fine. I just didn't expect you over here so fast. And I thought I'd killed him. How did you get over here so fast?"

"Sprinted. C'mon, let's not have Miranda do all the work." She said, turning away with that amused smile still on her face.

"Yes ma'am." He muttered mostly to himself, and proceeded to follow his new commanding officer back towards where the fighting was.

They spent the next half hour taking down any remaining mercs that came their way, casually collecting heat sinks and what bits of supplies that were lying around. To Garrus, it was better than just blowing the place and running. From the way Shepard would grin at a find and her description of it, Garrus found it hard to call it 'treasure hunting'. Yet another thing he'd have to ask Tali about later. Come around noon, as Shepard had predicted, they were back aboard the _Normandy_ in time for lunch and her precious 'roast beef'. Garrus had no choice but to stand with Tali in hoping whatever Gardner dished out wouldn't kill them. Though just by looking at it, Garrus wasn't sure that getting dextro-amino goop from a human was a very bright idea. Seeing as to how he had no choice, Garrus resolved to not just staring at his tray and hoping his tongue didn't fall out. What with today's goop being a ghastly shade of green, the grey and blue lumps more familiar than anything.

"Hey Garrus! How'd your mission go?" Tali said happily as she sat down across from him, her own tray filled with different things than his.

Smiling at the quarian, Garrus suddenly felt a little better about his day. "As good as one can go. Are all humans as crazy as her?"

"No but from my experience, she's more sane than most I met before her." Tali said with a giggled before her gaze fell to his tray. "Ooh that's what you got? I'm jealous now."

Perplexed, Garrus's smile became a little strained but he kept it firm on his face as he scoffed at the girl. "Jealous? What for? It's just some green slop Rupert gave me. Is there something special about it?"

"Taste it and find out." She said, her giggles clearly hard to contain. So much that even some of the human crew were starting to glance over.

Blue eyes narrowing at the quarian, Garrus felt the need to whisper. The last thing he wanted was to be a victim of some joke in front of the crew. "It's not something gross is it?"

"Of course not! Not unless you've got something against fruit." Tali practically exclaimed at him, as if appalled at the idea.

_Fruit? Is that what this is?_ Garrus thought as he eyed the goop with a new sense of curiosity and a hint of suspicion. Taking his standard issue spoon in his clawed hand, he scooped a bit of it up, not too much but enough for a good taste, and brought it to his mouth. The turian almost hesitated, mostly from the way the quarian was staring anxiously, briefly pausing in his action of consuming the foul colored paste. What happened in his mouth was a tangy, sweet explosion of flavor, subtle but strong. Garrus almost didn't believe it until he let it spread through is mouth, his tongue practically bathing in it.

Somehow Garrus found himself lightly humming in satisfaction, Tali practically close to laughing from her seat across from his. Mandibles quivering with a reborn smile, the turian just had to ask. "What was that?"

"Shepard says it's 'green apple'. From what she tells me, apples come in different colors, so for some reason, they have slightly different flavors. I think she said that green apple's practically a candy." Tali said informatively, clearly something the quarian may've gotten a lecture over.

"I don't doubt that." Garrus muttered, astounded at Rupert's innovation of a human-born flavor. Clearly the man had done his homework. Shrugging off any questions or comments that were on his mind, Garrus found himself just enjoying the calm of the room and the sweet retreat the green slop provided. He and Tali talked for roughly an hour before they had to leave for their separate duties, her to deck 4, him to the main batteries.

Giving Rupert a nod as he left his tray where it was, Garrus was quickly down the walkway and inside his own little hideaway, EDI's blue orb of a 'face' appeared as soon as he activated his terminal. Not even looking at the AI watching him, Garrus began typing away, his mind already lost in the algorithms.

"Good afternoon Officer Vakarian. Fifty-six of the several thousand targeting algorithms are in need of adjustment. Do you require my assistance?" the AI asked politely with her synthesized voice.

"Not at the moment EDI. I'll let you know but for now, I've got this." He said calmly, somehow hiding his irritation, turian pride rearing its head over the quality of his work.

"Of course Officer Vakarian. I will be standing by." She said as calmly as before.

"Great…." He muttered, mostly to himself as EDI's holo-interface vanished into the wall in the rather unnerving way it did. Somehow Garrus knew he'd never get used to that. Before he knew it, Garrus was consumed in the hundreds of codes in front of him. Adjusting here, tweaking there, as well as a few rewriting before something went completely out of whack. Time wilted away from the turian, going from his holopad to his terminal with various algorithms and simulations of said codes at work. How long he spent at his station working he didn't know, but the sound of the door opening behind him broke his concentration, making him jump and turn. He relaxed, however, when he saw who it was. Straightening his posture a little, he nodded at the newcomer respectfully.

"Commander. Do you need something?" he asked politely, as he was sure she would like to be addressed.

Shepard smiled, her silver grey eyes watching him carefully. "Came to check in on you, see how you were doing. You doing okay after today's exercise?"

Somehow Garrus couldn't help but chuckle. "As well as one can be. It felt good after being cooped up for so long. But I'm guessing you're here for more than just my health status."

Much to his surprise, her expression sobered, the smile vanishing as the light in her eyes dimmed slightly. "I… I just got a message from the Turian Hierarchy."

Garrus felt himself stiffen, his face blank and his mind practically filling with questions, the two most important ones somehow coming out of his mouth. "My team? The mercs and their base?"

"Sit down Garrus." Shepard said calmly, clearly trying to school her expression but failing horribly. Her face should've told him everything.

"Can't you just-?" he began before she sharply cut him off.

"Sit down… before I order you to."

Taken aback by the sadness on her face and the cutting edge of her voice, Garrus knew he'd best do as he was told. "Yes ma'am."

Shepard waited until he'd seated himself on a small crate that sat against the wall near his terminal before speaking. This time, she spoke with forced confidence. "It took a few days but they managed to get a ship there. The base was abandoned by the time they got there but they destroyed it to be sure." He had no choice but to watch her, his heart already telling him what she'd say though his head kept denying it. "Y-your team… they were found throughout the woods. Their remains have already been recovered and sent to Palaven for proper examination and burial."

"Are they certain? Are they absolutely sure it's them?" Garrus found his voice weak and stammering in his ears, his blue eyes watching the woman intently.

All she did was shake her head, her expression sad. "The investigation's still underway. I already sent them a copy of your report to look over but they might contact us in a week or so if they need more." The frown she wore deepened. "I'm sorry Garrus."

Shocked into disbelief, Garrus's eyes found their way to the floor, barely registering his now shaking hands. "How could this have happened? They were my friends… they didn't deserve this…."

"No one does Garrus, but it still happens. It happens to all of us."

He looked up, a little shocked at her words, only to be taken aback even further at the look on her face. Of all the emotions she'd shown him, this one was one he didn't expect at all: pure, unbridled sadness. The look in her eyes of silver grey was that of true pain, pain only brought about from experience.

Like an epiphany, his brain brought forth the two words to explain that horrifyingly sad look on his new commander's face: the Skyllian Blitz. A time of true horror and bloodshed for Systems Alliance soldiers sent to defend the violent outbreak of fighting. From what he remembered about the event, Shepard had spearheaded the assault and took back the colony from the pirates that dared to cause such death and destruction. Anyone who saw such things for themselves likely came back changed. Upon seeing the look on his commanding officer's face, Garrus could tell she was no different than the other survivors of that horrible massacre.

For a while neither could speak, Garrus forcing himself to look away, down toward his now shaking hands. Quickly he clasped them together, but some of the shivers remained even then as he held back his anguish. If he heard her leave, his mind didn't register it in his memory as all he could see where his teammates' faces. Each memory flashed in his mind, each one as happy and vibrantly alive as the last, coming and going over and over again. He didn't know how long he sat there, or whether or not time actually passed him by. At the moment, he didn't really care. It wasn't until the door opened again and a familiar splash of dark purple spread across his vision. Almost immediately a pair of small hands forced his head up, making him look at the matching purple mask with glowing white eyes in front of him.

"Garrus?" Tali whispered hesitantly, watching the blue eyes staring back at her absently, as if she wasn't even there.

"They're gone. They're… they're all gone Tali." He told her absently, his voice a ghostly whisper of its usual rumble.

"I know. Oh keelah I know." She said, her voice cracking as she forced back tears, kneeling next to her friend as she held his head with tender hands. "Shepard told me to come see you. I don't think she knew what to do."

"Neither of us do Tali. We really don't." Garrus said a bit too calmly, his mind trapped in a never ending thought. A thought that would haunt him for days. _They're gone._

Releasing his face to take his arm and hand into her grip, Tali gently tugged at the sorrow-struck turian. "Come with me. It's late and you need to get some sleep. You've been in here all day."

Garrus blinked at the information as he stood up, his voice still absent of any distinctive emotion to her words. "Have I? I didn't really notice."

Tali stared at him for a moment, why he wasn't sure, her words coming in a sad whisper as she led him to the door. "Let's go."

Garrus took little notice of his surroundings. He didn't even pay attention when they passed through the mess, down the corridor to crew quarters. Barely registered that his door was opened and they passed through to the room beyond. Movements purely mechanical when Tali helped him sit down on his bed, eyes staring forward unseeing. Somewhere in the midst of it he thought he saw Shepard appear again, the two women whispering in worried tones about what to do. After a while they left, obviously feeling it best to leave him alone. Once he heard the door close behind them, their footsteps fading away, the turian finally broke down. Not caring who heard, his howls echoed off the walls, his fist hitting anything and everything, sending the chair at his desk crashing across the room. Garrus didn't know how long he did this, he didn't know when his arms felt like he'd gotten them caught in a door. He almost didn't understand why blood was seeping from his knuckles from punching the walls so hard. All he knew was he suddenly felt very tired, pent up emotions, whirlwind thoughts and painfully happy memories forcing his mind to go blank. Without taking off his armor or even getting on the comm. for Dr. Chakwas to patch him up, Garrus numbly stumbled to his bed and lay upon the soft surface. He didn't care that his blood was staining the sheets or that he was still dressed. All he knew was that he suddenly felt like going to sleep after a horrible nightmare. Forcing himself to shut his eyes while facing the wall of his quarters, Garrus could only pray to the Spirits that he wouldn't dream.

Hayden felt like kicking herself. She shouldn't have told him that. Not after seeing him so happy in the mess with Tali. Sitting in her quarters at her private terminal, she felt like just banging her head on her desk for doing such a stupid thing. But her thoughts were interrupted when her door chimed, signaling someone wanted to enter, despite the hour.

"It's open!" she called, the tempting urge to bash her head against something hard still very overpowering.

"Shepard?" a familiar voice called, making her look up and see the only quarian on the ship poking her head around the corner.

Barely managing a smile, Hayden did her best to keep her walls from cracking. "Tali… to think you wouldn't want to see me again today."

"That's not…." Tali began to say, but Hayden cut her off, turning away as she slapped her palm against her forehead.

"Just another day in the life of the meddling human. Oh god I'm so stupid." A brief silence fell between them, the smile fading, tears threatening to fall. "I saw you two in the mess today too. I knew I couldn't keep it from him but… I didn't want to see him hurt either."

"You're not to blame Shepard! Understand? Don't regret your decision. You did the right thing, even if you were well aware of the consequences." Tali exclaimed walking up to where her friend and commander sat. Just how many people were confined to sadness today?

Silver grey eyes stared at her, tears threatening to fall once more, her voice almost cracking when she spoke. "I still had no right to do that to him! I barely know him but he's your friend and I… I had no right to do that."

"Is that what you think? You think I'd hate you for this? That he'd hate you for this? It's not your fault and it's not his fault either. There's no reason for you to think like that." Tali exclaimed suddenly, a spout of confidence feeling like a slap to the face.

Blinking away surprise, Hayden finally let out a sigh. "Thanks Tali." She said with a soft but sad smile. "You definitely made me feel less crappy than I did five minutes ago."

Tali nodded, seeing her job was done for now. After a moment the quarian finally turned to leave. "See you tomorrow Shepard."

"See ya Tali." Hayden muttered, half to herself than anything as she was left in the silence of her office/quarters. After sitting alone doing almost nothing for a few hours, she finally had the mind to quickly shower and go to bed.

Unlike Garrus, who'd fallen into sleep's embrace without a hint of dreams, Shepard saw dreams a plenty. Images of blood, death and horror were rampant in the dark corners of her mind, red rivers of life flowing endlessly, accompanied by screams. Gunfire rattled between the shrieks of terror, grief and pain. Friends and foes alike falling like some invisible power had struck them, though Hayden knew they fell from bullets, biotic powers and explosives. Civilians, wearing various kinds of clothing, ran through the nightmare that was the long past battlefield, screaming in terror and shouting names she couldn't remember. Some were shot, others were tossed aside while the rest ran around seeking cover. All of it was hell brought to the lands of the living. And now she was reliving it again. Only now instead of humans being slaughtered by pirates, it was batarians and turians in merc armor. Their weapons more up to date and their companions more diverse. Somehow her mind was showing her that planet where she and Tali had found Garrus, nothing but forest for miles. And instead of the pirates and their never-ending rampage, an image she feared, she saw the mercs move decisively through the trees.

Blood filled her senses, warm and dark before chilling to emit a foul stench no one could ever forget. Only this blood wasn't red, it was blue. A thick ink blue that slowly, ever so agonizingly slowly, was turning into a horrible shade of black. The turians whose blood created this new river of lost life had no faces, mostly since Hayden had never met them and now never would. All her mind could procure was their standard armor and weapons, all slightly similar to each others'. Despite the lack of details, Shepard's mind still found a way to make their deaths appear senseless and violent. Visions of pain and death that would haunt her mind well into the night. Like many nights before, Shepard awoke in a tumble of sheets, gasping breaths and sticky sweat as she let her eyes take in the darkness of her room illuminated by her empty fish tank. As memory and dream began to separate, Hayden knew she couldn't go back to sleep now, not after something like that. The only hope she had now was that tomorrow would be better. A desperate hope that like any other, would less than likely come true.

Well that took forever. So sorry guys for the wait. I'd been debating how I'd written this and whether or not to rewrite the bloody thing. Now I'm just fed up, said 'fuck it' and decided to post it anyway. The next chapter'll be better I promise. You could say I needed this one to kinda get the ball rolling with the original plot and what not. My only hope now is I won't take so damn long getting it done! If that were true I'd likely be halfway done by now right? Haha I'm so terrible… don't hurt me. Anywho, with 12 pages worth of fic to keep you kids busy, let's move on shall we? That said, here's what's next:

Up next:

Chapter 4: The Terminus Blues

After such a shock as losing his team, will Garrus rise above his sadness or fall victim to the emotional scars that come with it? With Shepard still putting her team together for the big fight, and time ticking further towards zero hour, how will it all end? Find out when '_Fortuna Venatus_' returns in:

_**Chapter 4: The Terminus Blues!**_


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